{"id":80259,"date":"2018-05-24T13:43:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T23:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=80259"},"modified":"2020-01-13T14:16:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T00:16:58","slug":"municipal-wastewater-track-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/05\/24\/municipal-wastewater-track-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"Municipal wastewater can be used to track diseases in UH<\/abbr> study"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
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Tao Yan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new study led by Tao Yan<\/strong><\/a>, professor of civil and environmental engineering<\/a> at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a>, surveyed Honolulu\u2019s municipal wastewater system and determined that bacterial pathogen information collected matched those collected through the state\u2019s health laboratories. Yan\u2019s research was published in Environmental Science and Technology<\/em><\/a> and selected by Nature Sustainability<\/em><\/a> as its research highlight of the month. <\/p>\n

The concentration and makeup of one group of bacterial pathogen Salmonella<\/em> was monitored over a 54-week period in Honolulu wastewater and showed a significant correlation to salmonellosis cases reported in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> health clinics during the same period. Between wastewater and health clinics, 21 strains were shared, including nine of the 12 most commonly detected clinical strains, as well as one outbreak-associated strain called Paratyphi B.<\/p>\n

The results proved that municipal wastewater can be used as a microbial surveillance platform for infectious diseases in a community, paving the way for rapid and comprehensive disease tracking, including gastrointestinal infectious diseases. Efforts are also underway to expand the research to cover other types of pathogens (including viruses and protozoa) and antibiotic resistance.<\/p>\n

“Although a lot of research and development work is still needed, this shows that wastewater-based infectious disease surveillance is feasible and can provide a new set of tools to protect human health,” said Yan. “Ultimately, I would like to see a global network of wastewater infrastructures that work in sync to detect and track the occurrence and transmission of infectious diseases.”<\/p>\n

The study was a collaboration between the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa College of Engineering<\/a> and the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Department of Health<\/a>. The City and County of Honolulu\u2019s Department of Environmental Services <\/a>provided wastewater sampling assistance for this project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The study was a collaboration between the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa College of Engineering and the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Department of Health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[179,182,241,158,9],"class_list":["post-80259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-engineering","tag-public-health","tag-publication","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t