How wastewater is tested for viruses such as monkeypox, COVID-19

do you ever get used to the smell? And I guess the answer is no. The waste water comes in every day from almost two million people. But you know it's part of the job and you know so we we learn to live with it across Minneapolis ST paul and 66 suburbs. This wastewater right here. The trash of the sand has already been filtered out. Yes. You just take this much and bring it to the lab. This looks pretty clean to me. Well it's been treated but there's some stuff floating around in there. What is that? Right. We think that fibers from toilet paper is what I think Principal research scientist steve Barlow walked us through the complicated process of treating flooding, binding rinsing. I have two different wash buffers, heating, spinning. We'll just spin it for *** minute here and more to get one little drop of RNA. That's it. That's where all the RNA is. So this is what gets sent off to the you that's correct. How many viruses could you detect in our wastewater? Oh that's *** good question. I mean how many are there? We could probably detect them all. So flu flu polio monkey pox SARS Rsv In fact, steve paused our interview. Could I take one moment to get *** time sensitive monkeypox control into the freezer does it work the same way to look for Covid and to look for monkeypox. It's similar but it's not the same. Monkeypox is *** DNA virus. So we're looking for D. N. ***. But in Covid we're looking for RNA. That's correct. What do you see the potential for wastewater testing? Its enormous I don't think any of us really understood how much of *** resource waste water is the secrets this water holds. You have to dig to find them. They don't give it up easily.

How wastewater is tested for viruses such as monkeypox and COVID-19

Updated: 6:20 AM EDT Aug 20, 2022

University of Minnesota researchers started testing wastewater for monkeypox. It comes after they've checked it for coronavirus levels for more than two years now.Metro Plant Principal Research Scientist Steve Balogh studies the wastewater that comes in everyday from almost 2 million people."I don't think any of us really understood how much of a resource (testing) wastewater is," said Balogh. Learn more in the video above

University of Minnesota researchers started testing wastewater for monkeypox. It comes after they've checked it for coronavirus levels for more than two years now.

Metro Plant Principal Research Scientist Steve Balogh studies the wastewater that comes in everyday from almost 2 million people.

"I don't think any of us really understood how much of a resource (testing) wastewater is," said Balogh.

Learn more in the video above