KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the state of Kansas slowly reopens, public health officials are turning to an unusual source to help monitor the spread of the coronavirus in communities. They are looking at wastewater systems for answers.
“If we can detect (the virus) in the wastewater, we can know what is increasing and decreasing for that population,” said Belinda Sturm, the associate vice chancellor for research and professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Kansas.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment contacted Sturm, who had spent time detecting human pathogens in storm water in California. She developed a test to detect COVID-19 in about two weeks.
“We’re trying to understand what could we do with this additional information, how could this help us,” she said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus has been found in feces of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. While studies suggest the virus becomes inactive by the time it gets to a sewer system, it still carries genes that researchers can detect.
Sturm collected samples from 12 wastewater plants in Douglas, Shawnee, Miami, Franklin and Brown counties. Samples from 10 of the 12 facilities had detectable levels of the coronavirus, although 41 Action News does not know which facilities.
“Several of the facilities we sampled there are no reported cases in those communities. I think I was surprised to find it there,” Sturm said. “There are scientists like me who are trying this all over the world and we’re finding that the cases are five to 10 times underreported.”
Researchers can get results from the wastewater testing much faster than the results from testing people, suggesting wastewater testing could serve as an early warning device to let officials know about potential outbreaks.
