Scientists from the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) together with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officers have discovered traces of SARS-CoV2 virus, which causes Covid-19, in sewage samples collected from totally different areas of the town. The samples are being collected as a part of a pilot mission since December 2020, wherein consultants say testing wastewater may function an economical early warning system that enables officers to trace the coronavirus at an early stage. could assist to comprise, even amongst asymptomatic people.
Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar informed The Indian Express: “Waste water tracking has been used (even before the Covid-19 pandemic) to monitor polio. We explored the possibility of using environmental water monitoring to monitor virus activity and engaged in a small pilot project with NCL for this purpose. The findings have been interesting and we are now waiting for a bigger proposal for the institute,” Kumar mentioned.
The civic physique has appreciated the work completed by the scientists at NCL and advisable that the train be continued for an additional 12 months in view of the anticipated third wave. Pune Knowledge Cluster has sought extra permission from PMC and has additionally entered into an MoU with NCL to facilitate joint efforts.
“We have been able to detect the presence of SARS-CoV2 RNA in sewage samples as part of our pilot study,” mentioned Dr Mahesh Dharne, Scientist and Project Coordinator, Biochemical Sciences Division, CSIR-NCL. An official presentation was made by the scientific workforce within the latest assembly chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and an in depth report might be submitted to the PMC quickly.
Apart from 4 sewage remedy vegetation (STPs), which come below the purview of the civic physique, a drain that opens right into a river and one other STP plant within the NCL campus, have been chosen for the research. Pune-based NGO Ecosan Services Foundation assisted within the sampling work.
Since December 2020 until date, about 23 waste water samples from PMC STP, 17 from open drains getting into the river and 9 from NCL colony have been processed and evaluated for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid by RT-qPCR technique. Has been completed.
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Sewage samples from the open drain getting into the river have been additionally profiled for the interval December 2020 to March 2021 and sequenced by the ARTIC V3 protocol on the MinION sequencer.
“The thought of Waste Water-Based Epidemiology (WBE) was applied to higher perceive the areas affected in the course of the polio epidemic and the identical is getting used to know the dynamics of group transmission of SARS-CoV-2. is. Sewage remedy vegetation are thought of sizzling spots for illness surveillance as fecal home wastewater containing viral particles/hundreds enters the drainage system. The virus is then concentrated from the wastewater and monitored by means of real-time polymerase chain response (RT-PCR) know-how, adopted by direct meta-sequencing to detect mutations/variants,” mentioned Dr Dharne. Said. Apart from Dr. Dharane, the NCL workforce engaged on the mission included Microbiologist Dr. Syed Dastegar and Chemical Engineer Dr. Sanjay Kamble.
The Karnataka authorities has launched a metropolis sewage monitoring system in Bengaluru, whereas CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) scientists have additionally carried out related research in Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Allahabad and a few cities in Andhra Pradesh. are engaged. CSIR-CCMB advisor Dr Rakesh Mishra mentioned the samples are despatched to the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in Nagpur the place the info is analyzed.
“There is a lot of potential in this environmental wastewater monitoring,” mentioned Dr. Mishra.
He mentioned the huge unfold of SARS-CoV 2 may make testing each individual in densely populated international locations a difficult activity.
In their latest research in Hyderabad, CCMB scientists estimated the full variety of people uncovered to SARS-CoV2 primarily based on viral gene copies detected per liter and viral particle shedding per individual, suggesting that sewage -based monitoring will be an efficient method to the research. Infection dynamics, which can assist in environment friendly administration of SARS-CoV2 unfold.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
