For Early Virus Warning Purposes
The United States is recently expanding wastewater testing, which includes excrement from passengers on international flights entering the country.
On the 16th (local time), according to the U.S. political media outlet Politico, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has strengthened the "Traveler Genomic Surveillance" program that collects samples from passengers on international flights arriving at U.S. airports in preparation for the spread of COVID-19 in China.
This program was first introduced in the second half of 2021. It involves collecting nasal samples only from volunteers among passengers entering the U.S. to check for infections such as COVID-19, which is useful for identifying when, where, and what kind of viruses are introduced. Before the Omicron subvariants BA.2 and BA.3 were detected in other parts of the U.S., they were first identified through this program, serving as a kind of early warning system.
The CDC introduced this program at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at the end of last year and at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year to expand sample collection from passengers arriving from China. Currently, about 500 flights arriving from over 30 countries are subject to sampling.
In the first week of January, samples were collected from about 4,500 people at seven airports. However, considering the total number of passengers, this is still a small number. Since those more sensitive to COVID-19 are more likely to volunteer, the sample may not represent the entire population.
Accordingly, the CDC is discussing with airlines and airports the possibility of collecting wastewater samples from long-haul international flights. This is a plan to expand the wastewater testing program, which was only piloted at New York JFK Airport, to multiple airports.
The CDC expects that wastewater testing, which can collect more samples at a lower cost, will help more accurately identify virus entry routes. In August and September last year, the CDC collected wastewater samples from aircraft arriving at JFK Airport from Europe, and the samples detected COVID-19 variants that were mainly spreading in Europe.
The CDC wants to build a global system by cooperating with other countries operating similar programs. The European Union (EU) announced strengthened quarantine measures for arrivals from China on the 4th and recommended wastewater testing for flights from China. Canadian biotech company LuminUltra announced on the 9th that it will test wastewater from aircraft arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport for Omicron variants and monkeypox virus.
Ginkgo, a partner company of the U.S. CDC, recently agreed to operate a wastewater testing pilot project with the Ukrainian government and is developing aircraft wastewater testing programs in Rwanda and Qatar as well.
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