Researchers at LMU Munich measured Munich's corona incidence in wastewater for a year and were miles ahead of the authorities with their predictions.
Munich - The incidence value from the sewer system: By taking wastewater samples, researchers have succeeded in reliably determining the number of coronavirus infections for individual urban areas of Munich.
They were even faster than the health authorities and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
As early as April 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic, researchers from the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU) began taking wastewater samples and examining them for the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
Now they have presented the results of the long-term study in the journal
Science of the Total Environment
- with amazing results.
Corona study by the LMU: Munich's wastewater became an incidence oracle
For over a year, researchers under the direction of the Tropical Institute at the LMU Klinikum Munich collected wastewater samples at six locations in the Munich city area. The samples were then tested for Sars-CoV-2 viruses in the laboratory using PCR tests. The researchers were able to measure the spread of the coronavirus in Munich over time and space and even determine whether worrying virus variants were in circulation.
According to the LMU, the results fit “well with the official data on the 7-day incidence in the respective urban areas”.
The head of the study Dr.
Andreas Wieser from the Tropical Institute at the LMU Klinikum reports: “Thanks to the viral load measured in the wastewater, we determined the local incidence of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 three weeks earlier than in the reporting figures from the authorities, which are based on the analysis of airway swabs. “In addition, the researchers were able to detect the increasing spread of the alpha virus variant at the beginning of January 2021 - weeks before it was detected in relevant numbers using conventional tests.
Corona incidence measured in wastewater: LMU convinced of the new method
After more than a year of research, the researchers are convinced of the potential of wastewater monitoring for corona reasons. As an early warning system, it would offer clear advantages over mass tests using smears. In particular, the local distribution of worrying virus variants could be quickly traced using this method. The distortions "due to changed rules for sampling or reporting channels" are also lower in wastewater than with conventional test methods.
