Sewage reveals the spread of monkeypox virus

Researchers are looking back at the country’s sewers to track and confirm the spread of the infectious virus, but this time it’s monkeypox.

Researchers at Stanford University have monitored Covid-19 wastewater at 10 treatment plants in western California for the past two years, including sites in Silicon Valley, Sacramento, Palo Alto, and several other cities in the Bay Area of ​​California. I’ve been doing it. In June, they added monkeypox virus to the assay.

What they found: Checking for viruses on almost every site.

Alexandria Boehm, a professor of civil engineering at Stanford University, said:

“When we detect it in wastewater, it means that there is at least one person in the area contributing to the monkeypox-infected wastewater,” Böhm added. “The fact that we are detecting it in all these different places suggests that monkeypox is nearby and we do not know how many people have monkeypox, but a small place in the bay area. Not limited to. “

Bame and her colleagues confirmed the presence of genetic material from the monkeypox virus at all wastewater treatment sites except the University of California, Davis, but not the live virus. She said the most frequent outbreaks of viral material occurred in two wastewater treatment plants in San Francisco and San Jose, which serves about 1.5 million people.

Researchers have been collecting samples daily for the past 18 months as part of Stanford University’s Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network (SCAN). This is the only group that publishes data on monkeypox in wastewater in the United States.

Boehm and her colleagues are now trying to disseminate information and share methods of collection and monitoring, allowing other organizations to begin testing and generating data to better understand the spread of the virus. increase. In addition, we have expanded our business and started monitoring monkeypox in wastewater in a total of eight states, including Georgia, Michigan, and Texas.

“As far as we know, no other group is measuring monkeypox in wastewater,” she added.

Overall, Bame said he wasn’t surprised by the findings, given that researchers know that monkeypox DNA is excreted from skin lesions, urine, and feces. According to her, it is not clear how detection of the virus in the sewers is associated with reported and confirmed cases.

Efforts to control the spread of monkeypox are still underway, but the rapidly increasing number of cases fuels skepticism.

About 3,500 Confirmed In the United States, it is most common in states such as New York, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last week, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of monkeypox a global health emergency, as US authorities expanded testing and distribution of vaccines.

Symptoms of monkeypox include fever and chills, pain and malaise, and more advanced cases of facial and genital rashes when lesions occur. Symptoms usually arrive within a week or two after exposure and can remain contagious for a few more weeks.

However, unlike Covid-19, monkeypox has existed throughout the United States in the past and is a known amount to researchers. It first infected humans in the 1970s.

Monkeypox is part of the same family of viruses that cause smallpox, but it is not as contagious as smallpox and is rarely fatal according to the CDC. The virus occurs primarily in Central and West Africa, often near rainforests, and is increasingly emerging in urban areas. It is often known to spread through close personal contact, not only with skin-to-skin contact, but also through body fluids, respiratory droplets, and contaminants. according to To WHO.

Institutions like EPA already support it. In May, the agency caused the new viral pathogen guidance To allow manufacturers to advertise their products as effective against viruses (GreenwireMay 27).