UNLV neurogenetics professor Edwin Oh started wastewater surveillance early in the COVID pandemic to test for virus levels and give public health officials knowledge of prevalence of the virus throughout different areas of Las Vegas.
Recently, Oh and colleagues from the Southern Nevada Health District, Southern Nevada Water Authority, and Desert Research Institute expanded their work by testing open waterways and flood control tunnels around Las Vegas.
As these waterways are known to be makeshift shelters for thousands of unsheltered people in the city, the results of a new study published April 3 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters offer insight into the spread of pathogens among vulnerable and often overlooked populations.
“These hidden spaces, while offering temporary refuge, highlight a complex challenge involving urban infrastructure, homelessness, and the imperative for proactive public health initiatives – particularly for detecting and managing infectious diseases like COVID-19,” said Oh.
Oh says that expanding environmental intelligence monitoring to include these city waterways helps to create a more inclusive, comprehensive public health monitoring system that can better protect all city residents, especially the most vulnerable.
Key Takeaways
- Monitoring these waterways provides valuable insights into infectious disease and other health challenges faced by vulnerable populations. It can also warn of potential outbreaks within these communities, is non-intrusive, and protects privacy of unhoused individuals.
- Data gathered can serve as an early warning system for emerging pathogens and help guide targeted public health interventions and policy decisions, and ensure that resources and support services are directed to those most in need.
- Monitoring these waterways and vulnerable populations can also identify virus variants and mutations which may not have been previously reported in scientific literature.
Publication Details
“Environmental Surveillance of Flood Control Infrastructure Impacted by Unsheltered Individuals Leads to the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and Novel Mutations in the Spike Gene” was published online on April 3 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
