Coronavirus: Sewage analysis to flush out levels of infection

Testing the nation’s sewage will give authorities the clearest picture of the level of coronavirus in waste water.

Immunologist and Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty.

Testing the nation’s sewage will give authorities the clearest picture of the level of coronavirus in waste water and enable epidemiologist to detect how far the infection has spread in the country.

Immunologist and Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty has said testing sewage is an efficient and effective way of detecting how many people are being infected by coronavirus – a sentiment echoed by scientists around the world.

Professor Doherty said from a laboratory level, focused testing on hotspots and areas around them are needed to intensely monitor if there are any further traces of the infection.

“Testing sewage sounds pretty unattractive, but in fact, it’s done regularly for testing for poliovirus and norovirus,” Professor Doherty, who heads up the eponymous Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, said.

“With those two viruses at least, we can pick up one in 10,000 infected people so that would be a very good screening measure, and I know a number of people in the country looking at this and I expect we’ll do it.”

Scientists who have analysed waste water in Dutch cities believe levels of the virus found in sewage can enable epidemiologists to detect the level of infection. Analysis in Amersfoort, one of the cities sampled, showed COVID-19 was present before cases were reported, professor and microbiologists Gertjan Medema said.

The research also showed people infected with the virus begin excreting traces of COVID-19 days before they start showing symptoms.

However, experts warn that more work is needed to determine how accurately the technique will measure the COVID-19 outbreak.

Professor Doherty says he’s optimistic a coronavirus vaccine will be ready and available in 18 months time, but warns there are several problems with the virus hindering the production of a safe and robust vaccine.

You have to be very sure about safety because you are putting a vaccine in a number of basically normal people. So you have to be sure it’s safe,” Professor Doherty said.

“But I reckon we can get to a vaccine and I think we can get there in 18 months.”

He said viruses can trick the immune system to do the wrong thing and suspects coronavirus could be taking a similar course. However, he said there are different ways to eradicate the virus.

“We can make an end run around that by simply targeting various bits of the virus and fooling the virus by ignoring the other parts,” he said.

“So I think we can make a vaccine, but it will take time.”