The U.S. government is expanding wastewater testing, including feces of passengers entering the U.S., to detect dangerous viruses such as the Corona 19 mutation at an early stage.<\/p>\n
According to the US political media Politico on the 16th, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is strengthening the “travel agency genome monitoring” program to collect samples from international passengers arriving at US airports in preparation for the spread of Corona 19 in China.<\/p>\n
First introduced in the second half of 2021, this program is useful in determining when and where what kind of virus is introduced by taking a sample from the nose of only volunteers among passengers entering the United States to check for infection, such as Corona 19.<\/p>\n
This program served as a kind of early warning, identifying subvariants of Omicron BA.2 and BA.3 before they were discovered elsewhere in the United States.<\/p>\n
The CDC introduced this program to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport late last year and Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year to expand sample collection for passengers arriving from China.<\/p>\n
Currently, 500 flights arriving from 30 countries are subject to sampling, and 4,500 samples were obtained from 7 airports in the first week of January.<\/p>\n
However, considering the total number of passengers, it is still a small number, and it is possible that the sample may not be representative as those who are more susceptible to COVID-19 are more likely to volunteer.<\/p>\n
In response, the CDC is discussing with airlines and airports how to collect wastewater samples from long-distance international flights.<\/p>\n
It is trying to expand the wastewater inspection program, which was piloted only at JFK Airport in New York, to several airports.<\/p>\n
The CDC took samples of wastewater from aircraft arriving at JFK Airport from Europe in August and September of last year, and in the samples, a variant of Corona 19, which was mainly spreading in Europe, was detected.<\/p>\n
The CDC expects that wastewater testing will help more accurately identify the virus’s entry route as more samples can be collected at a lower cost.<\/p>\n
CDC wants to build a global system by working with other countries that run similar programs.<\/p>\n
On the 4th, the European Union (EU) announced strengthened quarantine measures for inbound travelers from China, recommending wastewater testing for aircraft departing from China. It announced on the 9th that it decided to test for Omicron mutation and monkeypox virus.<\/p>\n
Ginkgo, a partner of the US CDC, recently agreed to run a wastewater inspection pilot project with the Ukrainian government and is also developing aircraft wastewater inspection programs in Rwanda and Qatar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"