LAWRENCE, Kan. — Every week, Lawrence health officials are turning to wastewater to monitor the spread of the coronavirus in the city.
“With COVID, the gene concentrations in the stool are a much better indicator than the way they do the testing,” Trevor Flynn, the general manager of Municipal Services and Operations’ for Environment, Health and Science in Lawrence, said
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus has been found in feces of people who are asymptomatic as well as those who have been 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.
“Right now, we are taking a snapshot once a week and it’s valuable,” University of Kansas Vice Chancellor for Research Belinda Sturm said.
Strum, a professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering, collects samples from Lawrence’s two wastewater plants each week.
She has been collecting samples in different counties since the pandemic began as part of a partnership between the KU School of Engineering and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
In addition to advancing her method and collecting more data, she is working on developing a rapid test.
“Ideally, you could have something at the wastewater plant and an alarm could go off," Sturm said. "Real-time notice that there is something in the community or the concentration in the community."
Samples in Lawrence are collected and tested every Tuesday. The results are delivered to the city by Wednesday evening.
According to Flynn, once the city interprets the data, it passes it along to the Douglas County Health Department.
So far, the testing has been able to predict a potential spike in cases one week in advance.
“We’re providing real-time data that (the health department) can make timely decisions with quickly for the community,” Flynn said.
