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home / 世界杯决赛2022

saskatchewan waste water teams consider testing for polio, monkeypox

wastewater epidemiology teams in saskatoon and regina are considering searching for monkeypox and polio

by zak vescera

aug 16 2022
read time 3 minute read
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saskatchewan researchers scanning sewers for covid-19 may soon be on the lookout for other viruses.
wastewater epidemiology teams in saskatoon and regina are considering searching for monkeypox and polio, two viruses that are on the rise in north america.

“basically, we’re trying to translate what we’ve done for the sars-cov-2 methodology and see how well it works for these other viruses,” said university of regina biology professor tzu-chiao chao. 

wastewater testing looks for traces of viruses or other contaminants in sewage.
people infected with sars-cov-2 will often have traces of the virus in their feces, even if they are not symptomatic.
that, in turn, can be a sort of early warning system for public health officials.
the university of saskatchewan and university of regina began testing programmes for covid-19 during the early months of the pandemic, bolstered by funding from canada’s public health agency.
u of s professor kerry mcphedran said that has created infrastructure that can now be adapted to viruses as common as the flu or as uncommon as monkeypox, which was formerly largely limited to central and west africa before outbreaks began cropping up around the world.
dr. yuwei xi, post-doctoral student leading the work at the university of saskatchewan’s waste water testing facility, gives a tour of the site where the city’s waste water is collected and analyzed.
dr. yuwei xi, post-doctoral student leading the work at the university of saskatchewan’s waste water testing facility, gives a tour of the site where the city’s waste water is collected and analyzed. michelle berg / saskatoon starphoenix
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saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, dr. saqib shahab, recently warned that monkeypox could be ascendant in the province, though only three cases have been formally reported so far.
the virus that causes polio has recently been detected in new york. canada’s chief public health officer, dr. theresa tam, announced last week that the federal government may look to waste water testing to surveil for both viruses in the months ahead.
mcphedran said it would be possible, particularly since the public health agency of canada has promised to fund the u of s’s research until the end of march 2023.
“other viruses are definitely on the radar,” mcphedran said, noting that such testing would not have been possible before the pandemic. interest in covid-19 brought investment that has helped create waste water testing groups across the country.
“we’ve built all this infrastructure. it’s available now. the technology is there. it’s becoming more simplified, lower cost,” mcphedran said.
dr. femi oloye prepares samples at the university of saskatchewan’s waste water testing facility.
dr. femi oloye prepares samples at the university of saskatchewan’s waste water testing facility. michelle berg / saskatoon starphoenix
neither of the saskatchewan research teams has formally decided to start testing for monkeypox or polio, and mcphedran said it will likely take until the fall to begin doing so.
professor john giesy, part of the u of s research team, said waste water testing may not be effective for stopping monkeypox because the raw numbers of people infected may not be high enough to be picked up in waste water.
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“the numbers of people are pretty low, and the virus itself doesn’t spread through feces as much as what covid does,” he said.
chao said any tests the research teams run will also need to be carefully calibrated to their respective municipalities, since changes in the composition of sewage can affect a test’s results. he said they will also need to determine if the monkeypox virus remains “stable” in the sewer system so that instruments can detect it.
“fundamentally, we suspect it should be there. the question is, how many people would need to shed into the sewer system before we could actually see it,” chao said.

zvescera@postmedia.com
twitter.com/zakvescera

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