According to the study, alternative viral detection methods are taken in a critical wait to fight against the COVID-19 and eventually help to reduce the healthcare system burden.
This new study is published by lead universities and Irvine researchers who demonstrate the regulation of the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for monitoring the genetic diversity and presence of the SARS-CoV-2 compared to the other viruses.
SARS-CoV-2 Can Be Monitored Using Wastewater-Based Epidemiology
Since the spreading of infection of this virus, it has been difficult for the authorities and experts to monitor things that are responsible for spreading and curb them to control more infection in different areas.
The experts have come up with new systems that can help them to know the areas where such infection can spread easily.
According to the strategy mitigations of COVID-19, it is required to have affordable and accurate detection methods which help to minimize the SARS-CoV-2 spread. The clinical-based detection methods remained to be in gold standard where WBE represents the human population with collective waste.
On this note, the locale could detect the viral pathogens to serve potentially as a warning system during the early viral outbreaks. This study can show a better understanding and ability of the WBE for having precise tract and detection of the viral pathogens, which can provide insights into the ability of the system.
Researchers say that some valuable tools are given to fight at odds with infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
Researchers say that while we were working on the research project, the UCI team took power and monitored the wastewater, representing 16 million people from August 2020 to January 2021.
Katrine Whiteson is the lead researcher and author of this study; she says that “when this COVID pandemic hit, we know about wastewater monitoring efforts as e immediately thought for the wastewater collection during our research in the lab which helped us to hunt for phages.”
He added that “viruses which infect the bacteria, can also be used for the alternatives to using the antibiotics.”
Katrine is the corresponding author of this study; she says that “I’m very proud for the student team who mobilized the Jason Rothman in the lab for processing the wastewater and concentrate for searching the viruses.”
Whiteson and Rothman had led a research team which says about the RNA viruses among several research centers; the team also collected as well as analyzed the 94 wastewater influents sampled for having seven treatment plants from 5 months.
Researchers state that “wastewater samples can be subjected for sequencing the metatranscriptomic and another digital droplet PCR for characterizing the RNA viromes as well as SARS-CoV-2 with a heavy viral load.”
Researchers found that this study is very specific for the waste treatment plans that have viral load and correlate with the COVID-19 cases reported, and the team is gathered for longitudinally taking the samples.
On this note, relative abundance is compared when SARS-CoV-2 is increased in the study by specific plants. Researchers also optimized the technique of purification to detect the SARS-CoV-2 by a single nucleotide variant among specific samples.
Rothman is the first author of this study; he says that “our study shows the wastewater-based usefulness epidemiology along with its importance to monitor the COVID-19 crisis.”
The research team determined that wastewater samples are very rich in viral density, where most of the viruses are being infected by the plant. Team also suggests continuing the future studies for refining the samples into the preparation methods to determine the pathogenic viruses.
In a final note, Whiteson stated that “our team can have the ability to have cutting edge sequence with a monitored approach and also having the wastewater diversity by representing 16 million people.”
