Why Utah Public Health Lab uses sewage to track measles
Deseret News • • health
Key Points:
- Utah uses wastewater surveillance to detect infectious diseases like measles early, providing crucial data before symptoms appear, especially along the Wasatch Front.
- The Utah Public Health Laboratory, highly advanced and well-funded, conducts PCR testing and genome sequencing on sewage samples twice weekly to identify and track measles strains and other viruses such as influenza and RSV.
- Wastewater surveillance enables public health officials to issue timely warnings, guide healthcare providers on testing protocols, and focus vaccination efforts to contain outbreaks effectively.
- While the surveillance can confirm the presence of viruses in a sewer shed, it cannot pinpoint individual cases or detect very low infection levels, nor does it cover facilities with independent wastewater treatment.
- Utah’s lab is a national leader in bioinformatics and
