Everyone poops. Colorado health officials use this to their advantage to help catch coronavirus outbreaks faster than current testing techniques.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced Wednesday that it will partner with sewerage programs and local universities to test wastewater for COVID-19. The state invested an initial $ 520,000 to coordinate the effort.
Scientists say that virus particles can appear in stool samples for days before people show symptoms. Director of Public Health John Putnam said research from Europe prompted the state to invest in the strategy.
“It can provide early warning in the near future of about four to seven days to know if there are major changes in COVID specimens in the community, which we can then use to take this information for testing or other types to deploy resources, “Putnam said.
Putnam described the new test method as another tool in the toolbox of epidemiologists. At a simple level, wastewater testing is similar to nose-swab testing used at clinics and hospitals. This technique will not be able to identify an individual if a household is infected, but it will allow health officials to test large concentrations of people and give an early warning of possible outbreaks.
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