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How waste water testing provides an efficient way to predict public health

Mike McKay is the director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research. As part of his role, Mckay is part of a team that monitors waste water, including in the Windsor area. From this work, McKay is able to predict spikes in respiratory illnesses with accuracy and efficiency.

Waste water is a crystal ball giving us a look into the future when it comes to illnesses

Oliver Thompson · CBC News ·
A scientist wearing a facemask handles test tubes.
Mike McKay is director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research. Waste water testing is a more recent method for pandemic analysis and prevention. (Katerina Georgieva/CBC)

As the holiday season and cold weather settles in, illness abounds in the community. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, medical testing and spotting trends in public health has been at the forefront when we think about public health. 

During the lead up to the holidays, public health officials in Windsor urged the public to get vaccinated, stay home when you're sick and continue to be vigilant against COVID-19 and other respiratory infections.

A man in a grey suit in front of a black background.
Dr. Mehdi Aloosh is the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit's Medical Officer of Health. (Windsor-Essex County Health Unit)

"Heading into the holidays, everyone can play a part in helping to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses," Dr. Mehdi Aloosh, medical officer of health for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, said in a statement.

Currently about 11 per cent of the Windsor-Essex population is up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccines. 

Quick responses

Mike McKay is the director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research.

He told Windsor Morning's Amy Dodge that waste water analysis is crucial in determining public health outcomes going into the colder months. 

"Waste water really provides an unbiased indicator of community health," he said. "Most of what we know about the spread of diseases in communities prior to the COVID pandemic came from clinical testing, and we know for many diseases clinical testing is not really an accurate assessment of health." 

"It relies on people getting tested or thresholds for people who are eligible to get tested."

Windsor Morning8:55Waste water reveals RSV and other illness are dipping going into the holidays
Mike McKay, director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, share what our waste water is forecasting in terms of public health. Mike tells Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge about the lower rates of illness we are seeing going into the holidays.

The community benefits

Though wastewater testing is relatively new, it provides a more efficient and rounded view of community health. 

Aloosh called it "one of the crucial tools" in tracking and monitoring infectious diseases.

"By collecting and testing sewage samples, experts can detect specific diseases, providing valuable insights into community health trends over time," he said. 

"This approach is especially valuable when faced with limited laboratory testing, offering a non-invasive and cost-effective means of monitoring disease activity."

McKay said that waste water testing not only provides data on the prevalence of COVID in the community, but it can also assess the spread of other infections, such as influenza. 

"Those are really underreported diseases," McKay said. "That's where waste water testing is really showing its potential benefit to public health because without the testing we would have very little information on the trajectories of those diseases in a community." 

These testing methods are carried out three times a week, and the information is given to health authorities for up-to-the minute data. This means that wastewater testing is preventative, as much as it is accurate. 

"If there was cause for more concern in the community, [such as] a new variant, we could certainly increase the frequency."

"It's still not too late for people to get their flu shots."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Oliver Thompson

Oliver Thompson is a writer, producer and musician. Originally from the UK, where he worked for the BBC, Oliver moved to Canada in 2018.

    With files from CBC News

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