Alberta wastewater unlocked the important information about Covid-19. Can it also help with measles?

As Alberta’s measles outbreak increases, researchers are now looking at the province’s wastewater for highly infectious viruses and are hoping to determine whether the technology can eventually serve as an initial identification tool.

Alberta’s outbreak and the speed with which the speed of which the speed is widespread has expressed widespread concern. Tuesday afternoon, 1,323 cases Was confirmed since the outbreak started in March.

Piggbacking from samples of weekly wastewater, gathered through the Provincial Covid-19 surveillance program, the team has designed a test that can identify both wild types of measles virus (signs of actual infection) and vaccine related shedding in waste water.

Co-Leid Dr. with Pan-Alberta Network for waste water monitoring. Bonita Lee said, “waste water monitoring was shown very useful during the international level-international level-19th-international level-19.”

The samples are taken from 12 Alberta waste water treatment plant sites each week and sent to the provincial laboratory for analysis.

Once the test is completed for Sars-Cov-2, researchers analyze the same samples for measles.

Without any additional funding, the team began searching for the virus in early April, according to Lee, after the first cases in Edmonton.

They found signs of measles virus in water for the time period and have been since tracking provincial trends.

Lee, a professor of infectious diseases in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta, said, “We basically have a lot of measles activity and it is growing.”

Scientists cannot identify individual matters through this molecular test. Instead they get a population-level approach, he explained.

The counting of the official measles case of Alberta is widely considered, by doctors and scientists, to underestimate a low. And this Provincial Government website Accepts that cases are likely to be uncontrolled and settled in the province’s most difficult hit parts.

According to Lee, wastewater monitoring can be the most helpful in areas where measles cases may be undesken and public health officials want to understand what is happening.

“It is never useful by itself. It will always be useful as a supplementary monitoring tool,” he said.

Expectations to find out early

Dr. Xiaoli Pang retired recently after working as a virologist in the provincial laboratory for 25 years and leading the wastewater monitoring program.

Pang developed early Sars-Cov2 wastewater monitoring technology for the provincial lab and also designed molecular tests for measles.

“I believe that measles is going to continue – perhaps getting worse and worse,” he said, keeping in mind the wealth for monitoring waste water, it has been decreasing since the peak of epidemic.

“Our waste water plays a very important role. So we really need to continue.”

According to Pang, the incubation period for measles can last up to two weeks, and it is expected that technology can provide first detection and provide information that can be used by health officials to take action.

With Sars Cov2 surveillance, the team was able to identify the peaks one to two weeks before the increase in counting of the actual case, he said.

They want to know whether waste water signals will work in the same way for measles.

More research is required, he said, and to determine the science behind it will require access to the diagnostic case information data of how the indications of waste water are correlated with the case of real confirmation.

“We want to get clinical information … to compare the correlation. Are we really able to detect first and provide useful information for public health (so they can) take some types of decisions?” Pang, a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medical and Pathology at the University of Alberta, said.

For an effective monitoring program, according to researchers, more frequent samples will be required.

Alberta’s waste water monitoring program has been scored back since the peak of the epidemic. The test is we weekly instead of daily, he said, and they will have to wait for access to samples, meaning that real -time monitoring is not possible for measles.

Measles is highly contagious and can lead to serious complications including pneumonia, brain inflammation, premature delivery and even death.

Most of Alberta’s most cases are reluctant and this year more than 100 Alberton has been hospitalized due to illness.

The team has shared its initial findings with provincial health officials.

A spokesman for the Alberta government confirmed that it was aware of the research.

“Alberta University researchers are searching for the use of waste water monitoring for measles,” an email statement said.

“Public Health Officers are reviewing this data to assess its relevance in terms of current outbreak.”

In the long term, Pang believes that waste water can play an important role in fighting new and emerging pathogens and even help in identifying the next epidemic.

He hopes that funding will increase.

“Something new may come. If something really causes a major problem in the near future, I think waste water (will) plays an important role,” he said.

“Wastewater we see as a really important supplementary tool, especially for preparation of epidemic.”