Coronavirus can survive in your guts, and eventually pass in stool, sewage, and wastewater, a study finds. This means that COVID-19 may be spreading in ways we may not be aware of. According to a separate research, it is possible for virus particles to be shed through stool and bodily fluids.
Because most of our wastewater end up in sewage systems, testing sewage helps keep track of what viruses and infections are going around in the community, even before they are detected in human-to-human transmissions.
Interestingly, among the symptoms of COVID-19 are abdominal ache and diarrhea, which indicate the presence of COVID-19 virus in your guts, where a huge portion of the immune system is also found.
The virus’s prevalence in sewage and wastewater in the community can offer valuable insight in determining the scale and prevalence of COVID-19, especially when faced with the difficulty of mass testing.
This has already been done. In March, Dutch researchers have detected coronavirus in their country’s sewage, even before the first cases of COVID-19 in the Netherlands were confirmed.
Testing sewage samples for COVID-19 could alert governments around the world of the presence of various diseases in a community, even without performing mass testing. In September 2019, traces of polio were detected in sewage samples taken from Manila and Davao, allowing the government to preempt the spread of polio by giving out mass vaccinations.
For the latest COVID-19 cases, check out our reportr COVID-19 case tracker link.
For the latest news and updates on COVID-19, check out reportr.world/covid-19.
