Italy to start sewer testing, experts describe advantages

Italy's sewers will give early alert for future COVID spikes Italy will use the nation's sewage to predict future coronavirus spreads and to alert authorities to rising cases and new variants before they appear in testing and hospitals, a senior official said, announcing a project to be launched in coming months. Emilio Parodi Reuters

MILAN, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Italy will use the nation's sewage to predict future coronavirus spreads and to alert authorities to rising cases and new variants before they appear in testing and hospitals, a senior official said, announcing a project to be launched in coming months.

The new tool will be rolled out as governments look for new ways to track the virus to inform public health policy and to decide whether they have to take unpopular measures like restrictions that disrupt people's lives and economies.

It could also be useful amid concerns about shortages of testing kits and labs being overwhelmed as the more infectious Omicron variant sweeps the world. Like many other countries, Italy is seeing surging cases.

The tool will provide an early warning for future waves of infection and detect the presence and incidence of different variants, the co-head of wastewater monitoring at the National Health Institute (ISS), Giuseppina La Rosa, told Reuters this week.

She said she believes it will be ready in two or three months at the most.

Many countries, including Canada and the Netherlands have been monitoring coronavirus in wastewater since early on in the pandemic. The Global Water Pathogen Project keeps a database, called COVIDPoops19, of global data.

The challenge with developing predictive models of wastewater is that they have to take into account so many variables, including for example rainfall altering the content of the waste water, Luca Lucentini, director of Water Quality at the ISS, told Reuters.

"The great advantage of sewage monitoring is that it photographs the base of the pyramid, the whole population, whereas epidemiological surveillance covers those who are swabbed, that is only the top", La Rosa said. ...