{"id":32682,"date":"2020-05-08T14:11:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T12:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kwrwater.nl\/?p=32682"},"modified":"2020-05-26T14:38:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T12:38:36","slug":"monitoring-of-coronavirus-rna-sars-cov2-in-sewage-an-early-warning-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kwrwater.nl\/en\/actueel\/monitoring-of-coronavirus-rna-sars-cov2-in-sewage-an-early-warning-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Monitoring of coronavirus-RNA (SARS-CoV2) in sewage: an early warning system"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KWR Water developed a method<\/a> to monitor the presence of the Coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) in sewage. Whereas the testing of individuals requires individual tests, testing the sewage can give an early indication of the contamination within a whole population (city).<\/p>\n

What are the steps?<\/h2>\n
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  1. Over a 24 hours period, we collect sewage samples at the waste water treatment plant of\u00a0 a city. The samples are safely brought to the KWR labs.<\/li>\n
  2. Waste water always contains high concentrations of viruses. The question is whether SARS-CoV2 is also present. In the lab, we concentrate the particles present in the sewage through centrifugation.<\/li>\n
  3. The genetic material \u2013 RNA \u2013 forms the basis material for further testing the presence of SARS-CoV2.We first isolate the RNA from the virus particles and purify it. We can now start testing if SARS-CoV2 is present.<\/li>\n
  4. High concentrations of different viruses and other microorganisms are present in sewage, the concentration of SARS-CoV2 \u00a0is very low. An amplification step is used to specifically multiply a fragment of SARS-CoV2 RNA to be able to detect the low concentrations of SARS-CoV2 RNA. This amplification step is called RT-PCR.<\/li>\n
  5. If SARS-CoV2 is present in the waste water, the multiplication step will result in an increased concentration of a SARS-CoV2RNA-fragment. This increase is visualized as an amplification curve as displayed on the monitor screen.\"KWR<\/li>\n
  6. Samples with no SARS-CoV2 RNA show a flat line. The 3 curves show the results of various waste water samples containing SARS-CoV2 RNA. The graph shows 4 different samples (1 without SARS-CoV2and 3 with SARS-CoV2).The earlier the curve appears (more to the left) the higher the concentration of SARS-CoV2in the sample and the higher the infection grade within the population can be expected.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    \"405878955\"<\/p>\n

    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    Video \u2013 01:17<\/div>\n
    What we learn about the Corona virus through waste water research<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    Podcast<\/h2>\n