April 16, 2020
Australian researchers have achieved the first step in developing an early warning surveillance system to track the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community by testing raw sewage.
Researchers from the University of Queensland and the CSIRO have successfully demonstrated the presence of SARS-CoV2, the virus which causes COVID-19, in untreated sewage.
A proof of concept study was completed last week using wastewater samples from two wastewater treatment plants in south-east Queensland, representing populations living in the Brisbane region.
UQ and CSIRO researchers found RNA fragments of SARS-CoV2 in untreated sewage which would have been shed in the wastewater stream by COVID-19 infected people.
Director of UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, Prof Kevin Thomas, said the method built on work by researchers in the Netherlands and United States.
“This is a major development that enables surveillance of the spread of the virus through Australian communities,” Prof Thomas said.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the wastewater surveillance pilot was extremely encouraging and had the potential to strengthen Australia’s response to the pandemic.
“A national program based on this work could add to the broader suite of measures our government can use in the identification and containment of COVID-19,” Minister Hunt said.
CSIRO chief executive Dr Larry Marshall said the testing would help Australia manage COVID-19.
“The hope is eventually we will be able to not just detect the geographic regions where COVID-19 is present but the approximate number of people infected – without testing every individual in a location,” he said.
“This will give the public a better sense of how well we are containing this pandemic.”
