A sit down on the toilet might help coronavirus testing, as researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) begin testing poo residue in our sewers in a first of its kind study in the country's bush capital.
The study is attempting to replicate research in the Netherlands by the KWR Water Research Institute that detected the virus in the sewage systems, even when the number of positive cases in the country were low.
Project Lead and ANU epidemiologist, Dr Aparna Lal, told The Feed that current hospital reporting may be missing key data by focusing on people who have returned from abroad or have been in close contact with a case.
"What this method is going to provide us with is it will give us some much needed information on the potential load of the virus in the community," she told The Feed.
"It's going to add to evidence from patients who are testing in hospital reporting, so it's not going to replace that.
"We can use it as a tool to reassure us that there aren't high levels of undetected community transmission that we are missing."
How does it work?
The research team will be working with the Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre in the ACT, who take daily samples to test water quality. Dr Lal says they will be piggybacking off their tests, and make their own separate daily samples for the next 12 months which they will test for the presence of the virus.
On the face of it, testing poo from sewerage systems might seem a strange way to track the community transmission of the coronavirus but it's a well established method. Dr Lal says wastewater has been used in the past to track patterns of opioid and antibiotic use in the community.
Before people start worrying that the sewers could cause a spread of coronavirus, there's no evidence that is possible.
"Canberra, like most of Australia, if not all of it, has really good wastewater treatment plants," Dr Lal said.
"We expect that all the treatment that they do in these plants will get rid of the virus. So we're not looking at it as a source of infection or spreading."
If testing is successful, it could speed up shutdown
If you're sick of the shutdown, this study might help speed up the process of getting back outside in the real world.
The findings, if proven to be as successful as they have been in the Netherlands, will allow for a better reading on community transmission. The study is already being trialled in a few countries including the US and New Zealand.
Dr Lal says the research could potentially give a clearer picture, outside hospital reporting, of how many people have the virus, and how much evidence there is of that in the environment through sewage. That data could help inform control strategies, and could be used as a monitoring tool once current government shutdown regulations are relaxed.
"When we send kids back to school, we send people back to work and everyone resumes their daily life," she said.
"We can actually potentially pick up what impact the social distancing measures have had on the virus load in the communities through this method."
People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others and gatherings are limited to two people unless you are with your family or household.
If you believe you may have contracted the virus, call your doctor (don’t visit) or contact the national Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.
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