FEATURE
Photo : Minnesota Public Health Laboratory Division
We ’ re thinking beyond COVID-19 : How can we use wastewater surveillance as a mechanism of pandemic preparedness ? And we ’ re looking at other types of pathogens that might have health importance .”
Priscilla Seabourn , MS , PhD
State public health laboratories across the United States were consumed by COVID-19 diagnostic testing in the pandemic ’ s early months . Many laboratories didn ’ t have enough staff , enough equipment or even enough space to manage and test all of the samples . They were overwhelmed with work — while also trying to stay safe from the virus . But after clinical laboratories began to do most of the testing , and as more people tested themselves at home with rapid antigen tests , testing at public health laboratories shifted from diagnostic to surveillance .
Nearly two and a half years into the pandemic , public health laboratories are developing new surveillance systems , taking advantage of new equipment and staff , and improving programs based on lessons learned from COVID-19 .
“ We ’ re not buried under specimens at the moment ,” said Edward Desmond , PhD , laboratory director and administrator of the
Hawaii Laboratories Division . Instead , Hawaii is using whole genome sequencing ( WGS ) to investigate the spread of COVID-19 and to detect new variants in communities . WGS showed that in the vast majority of cases the virus was spread by state residents , not tourists as some had assumed . “ What that means is we need to have community mitigation because we can ’ t blame it all on the tourists ,” Desmond said .
The ability to detect new variants helps show the community when renewed mitigation measures might be recommended , he said . And , it allows the laboratories division to know what mutations exist in the state , which can help guide treatment .
Establishing Wastewater Surveillance Systems
Several states , including Hawaii , have implemented new wastewater surveillance testing , which can detect early signs of diseases beyond COVID-19 through viral RNA that infected people shed in fecal matter . In Hawaii , Priscilla Seabourn , MS , PhD , established the wastewater surveillance infrastructure — one of several COVID-19 projects she worked on during the pandemic in Hawaii , first as an APHL-CDC COVID-19 Laboratory Associate and then as an APHL-CDC Antimicrobial Resistance Fellow .
During her nine-month fellowship , Seabourn researched and ordered the proper equipment , optimized protocols and established collaborations with wastewater treatment plants . The new system has the potential to detect new COVID-19 variants , as well as markers for antimicrobial resistance and other diseases such as influenza and norovirus .
“ We ’ re thinking beyond COVID-19 : How can we use wastewater surveillance as a mechanism of pandemic preparedness ? And we ’ re looking at other types of pathogens that might have health importance ,” Seabourn said .
6 LAB MATTERS Summer 2022