MURRAY – Two Murray State University professors are assisting in a project to potentially spot COVID-19 outbreaks before they show up in a community’s testing by analyzing wastewater samples.
According to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky (FHK), the study is testing wastewater in Mayfield with the goal of pinpointing community outbreaks of COVID-19 before residents even experience symptoms. The hope is that the project’s findings could allow for more narrowly targeted measures to prevent further spread of the disease. The project a partnership between FHK, the Graves County Health Department, Mayfield Electric and Water Systems, Murray State and the University of Louisville Co-Immunity Project.
The project launched in early November, and FHK said it provided funding to pay for the equipment needed to analyze the samples, as part of a $60,000 grant to the Co-Immunity Project. While early data is still sparse, the project already has identified spikes in COVID ahead of the traditional clinical and testing models, the FHK news release said.
Dr. Bikram Subedi, assistant professor of analytical chemistry at Murray State, and Dr. Gary ZeRuth, associate professor of biology, are both assisting with the project. After samples are taken twice a week from the wastewater treatment plant in Mayfield, the Murray State chemistry and biology labs analyze the samples to count copies of the SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA and look for changes. Subedi has a lot of experience in analyzing wastewater, and in 2018, he traveled to the 256th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in Boston to present his findings from a study he did on illicit drug use. By analyzing drug residues in sewage samples, Subedi concluded that America’s drug problem may be even worse than officials realize and that illicit drugs are consumed at a higher rate during celebratory events, among other findings.
Dr. Ted Smith is the director of the Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil at the UofL Envirome Institute, and is the co-investigator of the Co-Immunity Project, the FHK release said.
“Ted Smith with the University of Louisville is leading that project and doing COVID monitoring in the northern Kentucky area, and they also wanted to have a rural community like Graves County,” Subedi said. “But there is a problem with getting samples from here to the University of Louisville because it has to be at a low temperature and (collected) every day. They didn’t feel comfortable with that, so that may be why they approached us. We have been doing wastewater analysis for other things for the past two years, so they approached us.”
Subedi said one of the benefits of analyzing wastewater compared to clinical testing is that it is easy and doesn’t require any action from the public.
“SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been shown to be shed into the wastewater from infected persons regardless of whether they exhibit symptoms,” Subedi explained in the FHK release. “Detection and measurement of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater therefore serves as a comprehensive, non-invasive, near real-time, and cost-effective approach to monitoring COVID 19 infection within communities that is not dependent on individuals submitting to testing. Trends in SARS CoV-2 RNA levels found in wastewater can be used as an early warning of virus outbreaks within the community and inform administrators executing public health interventions.”
Subedi said he and ZeRuth began collecting samples for the study in early November, and the preliminary data shows a strong correlation between higher amounts of the virus in wastewater and higher numbers detected in clinical testing.
“So far, the data is largely preliminary because we’ve had somewhat sporadic sampling over a relatively short period of time, but we do seem to see, at least preliminarily, that there is a spike in the level of viral particles in the wastewater that precedes the clinical testing increases in cases by five days to a week,” ZeRuth said. “The clinical testing does seem to be matched by what we think are the actual viral particles in the environment, but also, this serves as a something of a beacon. If we can detect the viral particles in the patient before they even know they have it, this information could be used to enforce policies that could help instruct shutdowns or put out (alerts) that there’s a possible outbreak on the horizon and you should maintain social distancing and mask-wearing, et cetera.
“The nice thing is, for the clinical testing, while it may be effective, most people only get tested if they’ve had an exposure or develop systems, but here, you’re testing the population before any manifestation of symptoms. You’re also testing the entire population, not just the people who do submit to testing. There are a lot of people who probably aren’t getting tested.”
The FHK release said wastewater-based epidemiology has been used for many years to detect diseases in communities, but this is the first time it has been used in Western Kentucky to detect COVID-19 spikes.
“It’s a non-traditional partnership and we are proud to have the opportunity to do our part to slow the spread of COVID in our community,” said Marty Ivy, general superintendent at Mayfield Electric and Water Systems.
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