OU Researchers Testing Sewage In 5 Cities For COVID-19

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma say one of the best places to check the spread of COVID-19 is in the sewers, and that is why they are now testing samples from five Oklahoma cities each week.

The results show more COVID-19 in the population than what is being picked up by individual testing. In Tulsa, an OU student picks up bottles of raw sewage poured from a composite sample of the previous day. The water is tested with the same technology as the nasal swab COVID test, and the results are back within 24 hours.

“It’s a sample of all the wastewater coming into the plant, and we send a sample over to the OU folks once a week,” said Josh Fisher, the Superintendent of Tulsa’s Southside Treatment Plant, at 53rd and Elwood. The plant handles about 1/3 of the sewage treated in Tulsa each day.

Researchers from OU are testing sewage samples from Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Norman, Midwest City, and Anadarko.

Jason Vogel, Ph.D., the Director of the Oklahoma Water Survey at OU, said the virus has been detected in every sample.

“There's always been the virus out there in the community, being shed by people, enough for us to detect it. It was high back in January. It's come down and kind of plateaued since then,” said Vogel.

Brad Stevenson Ph.D., an OU Microbiology Professor, said the virus shows up in feces within hours of the initial infection, which is usually days before symptoms show up, and as much as a week before the typical patient is tested. “Our data did track with the 7 days out when the tests came in and that's what convinced us our data was predicting what was going to be seen via testing in the community. It's virtually a real-time measure of the prevalence of COVID in a population, which we otherwise do not have,” said Stevenson.

The results from the sewage samples show higher levels of the virus than what is being indicated with other tests, an indication, according to Katrin Kuhn, PhD, an Epidemiologist with OU Health.

“Our sewage measurements show the actual number of cases is higher than what the testing numbers show,” said Kuhn, who noted because of a decline in people seeking testing, the number of recorded infections is artificially low.

The OU team has sampled sewers in Oklahoma City neighborhoods, and dorms at the Norman campus, to look for more localized hotspots. The information can help guide outreach for testing, and vaccinations.

“We're targeting the areas that are hotspots, and it's been great, helping us be more strategic with resources,” said Halley Reeves, the Vice President for Community Health Impact with OU Health.

Dr. Stevenson said the sewage testing can pick up outbreaks in communities as much as a week before more conventional tests. Right now, he says the results show a sustained community spread with the level of virus beginning to increase. Stevenson said OU is also testing samples to identify variants of COVID-19, and the same technology can be used to detect other infectious diseases, drug use and possibly indications of hypertension.