Canberra, December 11 The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization of Australia issued a communiqué on the 10th that a new study conducted by them and researchers from the University of Queensland showed that wastewater testing could detect the presence of COVID-19 in the community weeks before symptoms of COVID-19 patients appeared. Poison helps to build targeted early detection systems.
The researchers reviewed and analyzed wastewater samples collected in Brisbane, Australia, in February and early March this year. The study found that genetic fingerprints of the novel coronavirus can be detected from wastewater samples as early as three weeks before the first public report of the first coronavirus cases in the local area. The research results have recently been published in the American Journal of Overall Environmental Science.
The researchers also said that if the sampling is frequent and extensive enough, the technology can detect the novel coronavirus through wastewater before patients feel uncomfortable, because their bodies have begun to discharge virus fragments into wastewater systems through feces before they know that they are infected.
“The study found that some patients may have contracted and spread the novel coronavirus before they showed clinical signs,” said Trevor Drew, director of the Australian Center for Disease Control and Prevention who participated in the study.
Evidence shows that after the novel coronavirus infects the human body, it can replicate itself some time before the patient develops symptoms, and some of the virus will be excreted with human faeces.
The researchers believe that this finding helps to restrict epidemic prevention measures in specific regions, avoids “complete blockades” in larger areas, and helps restore the economy and make people move more freely. Researchers will also continue to improve methods to detect viruses more efficiently in wastewater and reduce uncertainty about how wastewater is sampled.
Previously, researchers in many countries reported that the novel coronavirus was detected in wastewater. The University of Barcelona in Spain issued an announcement in June this year that a research team led by the university tested the novel coronavirus in Barcelona wastewater samples collected last March.
In addition, French media reported in July this year that the novel coronavirus was detected in wastewater samples in Paris in late June and July. The French Academy of Medical Sciences said in early July that microbiological analysis of wastewater can play a regular monitoring and forward-looking warning role for the spread of the virus.
