Novel coronavirus pneumonia cases were diagnosed in France in March 5th, and 7 of them died. The epidemic has not yet been taken seriously by the whole population. More than 400 However, on this day, researchers from Paris water company detected a large number of new coronavirus traces in three domestic sewage treatment plants. The new coronavirus can exist in the digestive system of patients and be excreted through feces. The discovery in early March could prove that the virus had been actively spreading in Paris before then.

"We were surprised to find traces of the new coronavirus in the sewage in early March," said Laurent Mulan, a microbiologist and head of the biological research laboratory of the Paris water company. "Since there were less than 100 cases announced in the whole island at that time, we realized that this was a very sensitive test method. For a pandemic that is likely to break out again, we should continue to monitor whether the virus content in the sewage increases. ". In view of the large number of asymptomatic patients, Mulan believes that the detection of sewage can bring asymptomatic patients into the scope of observation, and can obtain early warning signals in the early stage of the epidemic development.

Following the Paris water company, the French Sorbonne University, the Paris health sector group and the military biomedical research institute cooperated to carry out virus monitoring in more than 30 sewage treatment plants in France. In recent weeks, researchers have conducted a quantitative analysis of the virus content in the sewage of the French island region, and published the data of three detection points on the website of medrxiv, a preprint platform for medical papers. The paper, released on May 6, traces back to the results of the tests from March 5 to April 23, showing for the first time that there is a correlation between the concentration of sewage virus and the epidemic situation (number of inpatients). This means that the detection of sewage can be an early warning system to track the development of the epidemic.

For novel coronavirus pneumonia, the project is recommended for large-scale surveillance and is included in the plan to combat the new crown pneumonia in France. Vincent Marechal, Professor of Virology at Sorbonne University, told French media that this is a new tool for monitoring viruses in the environment and a way to reflect non clinical virus carriers, which is of global importance. This will be a supplement to the existing detection methods, and early warning monitoring can also be carried out in areas where no cases of infection have been found.

The project has received strong support from the French government, including funding. Celia Brauer, vice mayor of Paris and chairman of the Paris water company, said the Paris team is currently studying how this method can monitor large-scale clustered infections, including sewage monitoring of "micro clusters" such as communities and institutions.

It is estimated that a one-year plan for the implementation of the whole law will cost about 3 million euros and can be used to monitor more than 100 test points. "By setting up a national sewage monitoring network, we can also detect other viruses and bacteria, as well as early warning of epidemics," said Vincent Marechal.

In novel coronavirus pneumonia, Australia's health ministry has announced that sewage analysis will be used as a warning indicator for the new crown pneumonia epidemic and will be launched in Queensland. The U.S. has also monitored 270 wastewater treatment plants, led by MIT start-up biobot, and is still increasing the number of contracts with local authorities.

Source: Science and Technology Daily