{"id":1733,"date":"2021-02-01T21:53:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T21:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/?p=1733"},"modified":"2021-02-01T22:08:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T22:08:31","slug":"covid-19-surveillance-measuring-coronavirus-in-wastewater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/covid-19-surveillance-measuring-coronavirus-in-wastewater\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 surveillance: Measuring Coronavirus in wastewater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-design-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1739\" width=\"433\" height=\"363\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-design-2.png 940w, https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-design-2-300x251.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-design-2-768x644.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Untitled-design-2-400x335.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><figcaption>Measuring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uantwerpen.be\/en\/research-groups\/antwerp-drug-discovery-network\/addn-researchers\/laboratory-of-microb\/\">Laboratory for Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH) <\/a>and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uantwerpen.be\/en\/research-groups\/toxicological-centre\/\">Toxicological Centre<\/a>, have joined forces with the Belgian health agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciensano.be\/en\">Sciensano<\/a> to measure levels of the Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in wastewater. This research builds on methodologies and expertise that were previously optimized by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uantwerpen.be\/en\/staff\/peter-delputte\/\">Prof. Peter Delputte<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uantwerpen.be\/en\/staff\/alexander-vannuijs\/\">Prof. Alexander van Nuijs<\/a> with funding received from the UAntwerp University Research Fund (BOF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Samples of (incoming) wastewater from Belgian treatment stations will be analysed twice a week for 2 years. The measurement of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is a national surveillance program that covers more than 40% of the Belgian population. The selected collection points for the wastewater samples are located in areas with a high population density. Thus, in theory, these are areas with a higher risk of coronavirus transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first collected data so far shows that&nbsp;the levels of&nbsp;SARS-CoV-2 present in wastewater are&nbsp;largely similar to the number of positive tests in the 3 regions of the country (Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">Therefore,&nbsp;wastewater could be used as a new epidemiological indicator to detect any significant fluctuations in the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in the general population.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>These analyses are carried out by three labs, all using the same testing methodology:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UAntwerp Laboratory for Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH) and the Toxicological Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>e-biom (a University of Namur spin-off)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sciensano (food pathogens lab)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further information can be found on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciensano.be\/nl\/pershoek\/covid-19-surveillance-van-het-afvalwater-voorlopige-resultaten\">Sciensano <\/a>website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers from the Laboratory for Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH) and the Toxicological Centre, have joined forces with the Belgian health agency Sciensano to measure levels of the Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in wastewater. This research builds on methodologies and expertise that were previously optimized by Prof. Peter Delputte and Prof. Alexander van Nuijs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-svg.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,56,30],"tags":[43,70,62],"class_list":["post-1733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drug-research","category-environmental-health","category-research","tag-coronavirus-2","tag-lmph","tag-toxicology"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1733"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1750,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions\/1750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/fbd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}