KWR in the news F.M. Béen - Tracking sewage to surveil COVID-19

“In a preprint (that has not been peer-reviewed) published on March 30, KWR Water Research Institute researchers in the Netherlands, said even before COVID-19 patients appeared, the sewage data (first from Amersfoort and then from Terschelling) made it clear that the virus was present in the population.
In an update on their website, KWR researchers said that in the case of sewage, one test is sufficient to determine whether an entire population is infected with the coronavirus. The advantage of this method is that it is very specific and sensitive. “We test whether the virus is circulating in a city or municipality, not who is or who is not infected within that population,” they said.
In the Netherlands, but also in other countries, samples are collected from the sewer network to detect hereditary material (RNA) of the COVID-19 virus in wastewater with the aim of using the sewer as a “mirror of the population” said Frederic Been of COVID-19 team at KWR Water Research Institute.”

(Citation: Ghosh, S. – KWR in the news F.M. Béen – Tracking sewage to surveil COVID-19 – www.india.mongabay.com (2020)15 April)