UP SCIENTISTS FOUND TRACES OF SARS COV-2 THAT CAUSES COVID-19 IN DAVAO WASTEWATER TESTS Govt urged: Use wastewater surveillance for pandemic, other disease management

By Manuel T. Cayon

DAVAO CITY—Scientists from state-ran University of the Philippines (UP) urged the government to consider adapting a wastewater-based surveillance system during a pandemic or for other public-health management in order to enhance data accumulation and enable quicker sciencebased decisions.

The suggestion was an outcome of the research of a team led by Dr. Caroline Marie Jaraula of the UP Diliman College of Science’s Marine Science Institute.

Jaraula was already doing water quality research in the Davao region and decided to expand into wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), or the analysis of biological and chemical markers in wastewater, in order to provide information on public health.

In the research in 2020 that evolved into multiple studies, when more scientists collaborated with her, it was found out that traces of genetic materials from the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS CoV-2), the virus that causes the Covid-19, were in wastewater samples.

While scientists said the genetic materials were not infectious anymore and that more studies should be conducted on other issues surrounding the result, the scientists believed that “there is potential in the conduct of WBE for monitoring public health across the Philippines,” especially during the Covid-19 and other pandemic diseases in the future.

The research

RESEARCHERS said the RNA found in the wastewater “may have also come from pre-symptomatic, asymptomatic, or symptomatic individuals, who did not report to their local health monitoring unit.”

Maria Catherine Otero of UP

Manila and one of those who joined the collaboration in the Davao City wastewater research said the virus’s RNA was detected in 22 out of 24 samples (91.7 percent) regardless of the presence of new Covid-19 cases in those areas. She said this “echoed” similar trends in Covid-19 cases reported through standard clinical surveillance.

“Danger of reinfection due to wastewater research will not be an issue because the virus is already dead in the water. They can still be detected because of the RNA, but they are no longer infectious,” Otero said.

Invaluable detection tool

IT was during the first year of the pandemic in 2020, when Jaraula began her research on water quality that soon evolved into a multiple work as other scientists and researchers from UP Mindanao and UP Manila joined and formed a collaboration. They included Dr. Lyre Anni Murao, Dr. Emmanuel Baja, Dr. Vladimer Kobayashi, Dr. Dann Marie del Mundo and Otero.

The team has expanded its efforts to look at other possible beneficial uses of WBE.

With funding from the Department of Science and Technology’s Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D (DOST-Nicer), they have expanded their work into other areas