June 12, 2023 – Scientists consider an individual in Ohio who has been infected with COVID-19 for 2 years is shedding a thousand times more virus than normal, in response to wastewater monitoring data. The virus strain appears to be unique, the researchers said.
The mutated version of the virus was discovered by a team of researchers led by virologist Dr. Marc Johnson of the University of Missouri who studied independent mutations present in wastewater. ÞjórsárdalurJohnson said their work could help warn people of a possible risk.
“If you knew that a group of people had been exposed to a deadly disease, you would have a duty to inform them,” he wrote.
He believes the infected person lives in Columbus, works in a court in a close-by county and has intestinal problems. The county where the person works has only 15,000 residents but saw record sewage levels resulting from COVID in May. The ColumbusTo ship reported. The unique COVID strain Johnson is researching was the one COVID strain present in Fayette County wastewater.
“This person lost thousands of times more material than a normal person would ever lose,” Johnson told the To ship“I think this person is not well. … I suspect he has gastrointestinal problems.”
Monitoring wastewater for COVID-19 is just intended to tell health authorities concerning the spread of the virus locally. This information doesn't track individuals who have COVID.
The CDC informed the To ship that the outcomes don't pose a risk to public health.
“Unusual or 'cryptic' sequences identified in wastewater may represent viruses that can replicate in certain individuals but not in the general population,” the CDC wrote in a press release to the newspaper. “This may be due to a weakened immune system. CDC and other institutions are conducting studies in immunocompromised individuals to understand persistent infection and virus evolution.”
Officials from the Ohio Department of Health told the newspaper that they don't consider the situation to be a public health threat since the cryptic strain has not spread beyond two sewers in those two years.
Johnson and his colleagues have studied other unique COVID strains present in wastewater. They wrote a Paper a few case in Wisconsin that's currently in preprint, meaning it's awaiting peer review before full publication.
In the article, the researchers suggest that some individuals are persistently infected and discuss with them as “prolonged shedders.” The researchers write that these individuals could possibly be humans or “non-humans” and that “increased global surveillance of such strains in wastewater could help anticipate future circulating mutations and/or variants of concern.”
Earlier this yr, the CDC announced that it might stop reporting community-level COVID testing data and rely more heavily on hospital reports and wastewater surveillance. According to the CDCThis variety of hospitalizations corresponds to roughly two hospitalizations per 100,000 people.