The University of Arizona made a bold claim this week: it stopped the coronavirus outbreak before it started.
Universities around the US are struggling with an outbreak while trying to start a fall semester. But in the dorm of Lickinson Hall, across the street from the University of Riyadh recreation center, two students were found to have contracted coronavirus – and they were asymptomatic.
The university said it created this by combining more common forms of coronavirus reduction, swab testing and contact tracing with the more bizarre: sewer analysis.
The university implemented a campus-wide initiative to do what is known as a wastewater-based epidemic. These efforts, which included the analysis of sewer samples for coronavirus traces, led the university to quickly and frequently detect traces of the virus in independent groups of people – in this case, dorms – as part of an early warning system for catching COVID-19 cases.
“From one test, we see the spread of the virus throughout the community,” said Ian Piper, an environmental microbiologist who led efforts to test wastewater on campus.
The idea is amazing. Researchers in the United Kingdom launched a program in July to monitor cross-country wastewater. In Israel, scientists who collected nationwide sewer samples in March and April hailed the effort as an effective, non-vehicle solution to the outbreak in geographic areas.
At the University of Arizona, Pepper said this type of test is especially useful for detecting and isolating infected people before they have the opportunity to spread the virus widely. The two cases identified at the university are both asymptomatic, and Pepper said a dirty water test could be sensitive enough to detect coronavirus for up to a week before a person develops symptoms.
“So, you have seven precious days that you can intervene.”
Pepper’s team is conducting regular sewer tests from 20 buildings on campus, including the dorms and the university’s student union center.
If a sample for coronavirus comes back positive, everyone who lives or works in that building after school protocol is to use traditional nasal swabs or antigen tests that are designed to detect viral proteins. The president of the University of Arizona, Dr. Robert C. Infected individuals are then quarantined, according to Robbins.
Sewage probes are designed to catch pieces of the virus that flow from the body into the fecal matter. Pepper’s team is collecting sewer samples from buildings twice a week around 8:30 a.m. – the time paper said, “after people get up and go to the bathroom in general.”
Samples can be taken more often if there are positive results, he said, but researchers have also found that fragments of the virus spread in dirty water instead of spreading immediately.
Robbins said the wastewater-based epidemic is a critical part of the school’s “testing, trace and treat” protocol and is a valuable tool that allows for more accurate testing.
“What we’re trying to find are asymptomatic individuals who may be vectors knowingly or unknowingly,” Robbins said.
But such samples can also be made at the neighborhood and community level, according to Pepper. In addition to studying sewers on campus, scientists at the University of Arizona are analyzing samples from wastewater treatment plants across the country, including New York and Los Angeles.
In addition to detecting potential hot spots, wastewater testing can help public health officials measure the severity of viral transmission in communities. In Pima County, Arizona, for example, sewage samples taken six weeks ago, while dealing with a significant spike in state cases, were found to have “sky-high” concentrations of the virus, according to the paper. In the last two weeks, with the number of new cases, that concentration has dropped “dramatically,” he said.
Pepper said he and his colleagues are hoping to publish the results of their research in a peer-reviewed journal, but for now, they are only happy that the testing method is proving effective.
“They are all shocked. Everyone is really hyped up, ”he said. “It’s a great case study.”
