Wastewater monitoring has proven itself as a method. A new federal project will start soon.
At the peak of the pandemic, there were several projects in which wastewater from sewage treatment plants was examined for corona viruses – financed by the federal government or the state. The federal project ESI-CorA, in which samples were taken from the sewage treatment plant in Büdingen in the Wetterau district, ended almost two months ago. This is to be continued in the course of the nationwide pandemic radar from spring. Until then, the investigations in Büdingen will continue, according to the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs. The current results can be viewed in the weekly report of the Robert Koch Institute.
Pandemie-Radar
Eleven sewage treatment plants in Hesse are expected to take part in the wastewater monitoring as part of the pandemic radar: two in Frankfurt (Sindlingen and Niederrad/Griesheim), two in Wiesbaden (downtown and Biebrich), Hanau, Darmstadt, Fulda, Kassel, Marburg, Gießen and Buedingen. This emerges from an answer to a request from the FDP MP Yanki Pürsün.
Pandemie-Radar
Up until the pandemic, the testing of wastewater had led a niche existence. It is now considered an effective and inexpensive early warning system. Wastewater can be used to determine how high the current virus load is in the population and which variants are on the move.
Susanne Lackner, professor at the Technical University (TU) Darmstadt, is considered one of the leading researchers in the field. The expert in water and environmental biotechnology has already discovered polio in human excrement, tuberculosis and influenza. Last summer she was able to prove monkeypox. In November 2021, her team provided the first evidence of the omicron variant BA.1 – the sample came from Frankfurt Airport.
Recognize flu outbreak
As can be seen from the response from the Ministry of Social Affairs, the various projects in Hesse have different priorities. For example, that of the city of Darmstadt with the Technical University, which aimed to digitally link health and mobility data with findings from wastewater studies. “The viral load in the wastewater was not the focus of this project.”
Pandemie-Radar
Uniform standards for analysis and evaluation are to be developed in Büdingen and the legal requirements for the introduction of wastewater monitoring in Germany are to be examined. The Darmstadt project ended successfully in December, according to the ministry’s reply. “It could be demonstrated that very good quality mutation profiles of Sars-CoV-2 can be obtained from the wastewater.” The planned federal project focuses on monitoring the viral load of Sars-CoV-2. At the present time, sampling twice a week is sufficient to get an overview of the trend.
Pandemie-Radar
According to the state government, sampling wastewater is “a relatively inexpensive method of monitoring health-related parameters”. “Another interesting parameter is antibiotic resistance and its spread.”
