Register Now! Important Covid-19 Early Warning Wastewater-based Epidemiology Webinar to be Held on January 12, 2022

REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR HERE NOW

Extensive research has shown that people begin shedding the SARS-CoV-2 virus in their stools almost immediately after becoming infected. The virus's genetic material makes its way into the vast wastewater collection network, where it can be detected and quantified up to a week before individuals test positive in clinics, using modern sampling and analysis techniques. Public health administrators can use this early warning characteristic to control the spread better and prevent further damage by analyzing virus concentrations in specific facilities such as nursing homes and college dorms and selected neighborhoods or entire communities. This tested wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach depends on installing properly designed sewage surveillance systems in the study areas. In this webinar, Teledyne ISCO's Business Development Manager, Kaushal Trivedi, and Aquasight's CEO, Mahesh Lunani, discuss how to quickly develop and deploy a community-based underground sewage surveillance program for COVID-19 outbreak detection, including best practices for wastewater sampling, lab analysis, and the immediate delivery of actionable information to local public health officials and administrators. 

COVID-19 EARLY WARNING WASTEWATER-BASED EPIDEMIOLOGY WEBINAR TOPICS

• Wastewater sampling site selection
• Sampling instruments - selection and installation
• Sample optimization and SCADA control
• Sample preservation and transport
• Lab testing and minimum detection levels
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Predictive analytics and advanced decision support tools including rapid identification of hot spots and high-risk areas

From this 45-minute presentation plus interactive Q&A session, attendees will gain valuable insight into community-based sewage surveillance, how to rapidly set up and operate an effective monitoring and detection system, and ensure it is well integrated for optimum public health actionability.

For more information about Teledyne ISCO samplers in Western Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio, Western Maryland, and West Virginia ,contact Advance Instruments. Call 888-388-6446 or visit https://advanceinstruments.com.

Automatic Samplers Help in Wastewater-based Epidemiology Pathogen, Virus, and CEC Detection

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) and sewage chemical information mining is a technique for determining a population's consumption of chemicals or disease exposure. A sewage treatment facility measures chemical or biological entities (biomarkers) in municipal wastewater to do so. Aside from illicit drug use, wastewater-based epidemiology can quantify alcohol, caffeine, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals. In addition, wastewater-based epidemiology can detect diseases such as SARS-CoV-2 in a population. Wastewater-based epidemiology is a collaborative effort that includes wastewater treatment plant operators, chemists, and epidemiologists. 

According to water quality professionals, contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are pollutants found in water bodies that may harm the environment or human health but are not currently regulated. These pollutants come from agriculture, urban runoff, everyday household products (such as soaps and disinfectants), and pharmaceuticals. 

Natural and synthetic hormones, as well as 1,4-dioxane, are emerging contaminants. After being discharged as waste, CECs can enter the water cycle via runoff into rivers, effluent discharge, seepage, and infiltration into the water table, eventually joining the public water supply system. Some emerging contaminants are known carcinogens or ones that disrupt the endocrine system and cause other toxic mechanisms. 

Teledyne ISCO automatic samplers can help local governments, private industry, colleges and universities, and many other organizations detect the COVID-19 virus, pharmaceuticals, and CECs in wastewater and provide the information needed to develop a corrective plan of action.

For more information about Teledyne ISCO samplers in Western Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio, Western Maryland, and West Virginia ,contact Advance Instruments. Call 888-388-6446 or visit https://advanceinstruments.com.

Will Sewage and Wastewater Sampling Prove a Key Indicator for Coronavirus Activity?

Wastewater testing, or “wastewater quality indicators” are broad descriptions for the various test methodologies to measure water quality.  These tests analyze the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of wastewater.

As countries and individual healthcare organizations work to arrest the spread of Covid-19 and to care for those who are infected, officials in some geographic locations are using wastewater testing as a possible method for identifying levels of Covid-19 in their communities.  The testing goal is to detect evidence of the Covid-19 genetic material, ribonucleic acid (RNA), in fecal matter in sewage and wastewater.

The novel virus, SARS-CoV-2, is the virus that causes Covid-19. It is known to invade the GI (gastrointestinal) track in some patients, and so the virus is extracted in their fecal matter. 

Looking at the amount of viral matter in waste water from a community could uncover the level of Covid-19 spread in the population.  This information can then be a trigger for the required mitigation initiatives and response plans, such as testing individuals, contract tracking, and quarantine. It also allows for information to be gathered on a cross section of the population, allowing for a way to monitor public health solutions for large groups.  

Scientists from around the world are setting up pilot programs to test waste water.  The Netherlands has successfully performed a Covid-19 test for waste water and additional programs are launching in Singapore, Zurich, Lausanne,  Milan, Rome, Australia, and in parts of the US, such as Colorado, Ohio, New York, and Wyoming.  Scientists in these regions have been able to identify the novel Coronavirus at low concentrations in waste water, pointing to an early warning systems for communities.  

In April, 2020, the scientific journal, Nature, listed that over a dozen groups around the globe were doing research analyzing waste water for Covid-19, and that evidence of the virus was already found in the United States, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Teledyne ISCO is paving the way with use of water samplers in the effort to identify the virus evidence in sewage.   Their automatic sampler readings analyze the characteristics and presence of the Coronavirus in parts per million quantities and can be laid against the population numbers of a geographic area to ascertain the existence and amount of virus existing in the waste water. 

For more information about the use of Teledyne ISCO water samplers for SARS-CoV-2 monitoring in wastewater contact Advance Instruments. Call them at (888) 388-6446 or visit their website at https://advanceinstruments.com.

An Important Webinar About Detecting and Tracking COVID-19 Outbreaks from Wastewater Analysis

Wastewater analysis initiatives taken by cities, municipalities, universities and others suggest the SARS-CoV-2 virus passes through human bodies and ends up in wastewater streams, and remains there for a long period longer than on the surface water.

RNA analysis of wastewater can detect this presence of virus, and if done in sewers close to the neighborhood, industrial zone, commercial area, or campus, may yield very valuable insights in the fight against COVID-19.

The Benefits of Wastewater Analysis Include:

• Detection of carriers in a given community, even if they are asymptomatic. This can assist in proactively managing healthcare resources, better planning for hospitalization surge, the allocation of hospital assets (i.e. beds and ventilators).
• Assistance in the decision to implement business closures, mask wearing, and social distancing.
• If wastewater analysis is performed on at schools and university dormitories, schools can be made a safer place for students and allow educational institutions to operate at higher efficiency.
• If wastewater analysis is done at the treatment plant, it can help verifying that treatment process is adequate to kill the virus and assist in ensuring that treatment plant discharge is 100% virus free.

In short, any type of early information or indications will help us better manage this pandemic and hopefully reduce potential threats.

This 40 minute presentation, presented by Teledyne ISCO, is a "must watch" for anyone in epidemiology, public health, wastewater treatment, and municipal water systems.

Helpful links:
https://www.teledyneisco.com/en-us
https://www.biobot.io/
https://advanceinstruments.com

Teledyne ISCO Water Samplers Assist in Coronavirus Tracking in Water Treatment Facilities

Reading the headlines today, you are seeing more and more municipalities testing their wastewater for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Viruses and bacteria excreted in urine and stool collect in public sewers. The use of sewage pathogen monitoring in wastewater treatment facilities as a public health surveillance tool is now a reality. Environmental microbiologists have studied pathogens in sewage for decades, but now because of COVID-19, public health surveillance efforts focussing on tracking virus levels is at an all time high. It is critical that expanded testing and monitoring continue, as this will certainly help in understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads and potentially affects community populations.


Teledyne ISCO, the leading manufacturer of water / wastewater sampling and monitoring tools, is helping in this effort. Teledyne ISCO manufactures a complete line of robust and reliable portable and refrigerated samplers. Using this equipment as part of their overall Coronavirus strategy, municipalities have portable and refrigerated samplers ready for widespread collection and testing. These samplers can be used in any kind of environment or test situation. They are easy to use and program, and they have many configuration options.

With so little knowledge of the SARS-CoV-2 spread, this approach may be very important. The data accumulated from the implementation of large-scale sewer sampling and Coronavirus testing may provide the information needed to build dynamic virus spread maps and, ultimately, the ability to predict and prevent flare-ups.

For more information, contact Advance Instruments. Call them at (888) 388-6446 or visit their website at https://advanceinstruments.com.