In early 2020, shortly after COVID-19 first swept the world, researchers at Bangor University in the UK Begin testing wastewater in major citiesThey hypothesize that by detecting the coronavirus in wastewater, the spread of the virus can be closely followed because it can reflect the infection situation in the city. The success of their experiments prompted British scientists to improve the methods used to detect the virus and sequence its genome so that variants could also be detected. This culminated in a national wastewater monitoring program covering 270 wastewater treatment plants or 40 million people.
Now, Bangor University has expanded these efforts to monitor coronavirus infections and the general health of air passengers entering the UK from other countries. new research, published in PLOS Global Public Health, The results were disappointing: Between March 8 and March 31, 2022, nearly all aircraft arriving at three monitored UK airports (Heathrow, Edinburgh and Bristol) contained Virus. Professor David said: “Despite all the interventions in the UK to prevent people with the disease from taking flights to the UK, almost every plane we tested contained the virus and most of the terminal drains Also contain viruses,” said Jones, of Bangor University’s School of Natural Sciences. “It could be because people are showing symptoms after testing negative, or they’re evading the system, or for other reasons. But it shows that border controls are largely failing in terms of COVID surveillance.”
Based on survey data collected by the research team, as well as COVID-19 shedding rates, they believe a wastewater sampling system implemented at airports could capture between 8% and 14% of COVID-19 cases entering the UK via air travel. In addition, the team hopes that this wastewater sampling will expand beyond coronaviruses, allowing the UK government to establish a network for monitoring the spread of infectious diseases that can detect multiple viruses.
