With a system of early warning, which consists of taking samples and laboratory analysis, in Las Heras they will seek the presence of covid-19 in the sewage mouths of the department, according to the municipality.
This procedure will warn up to 10 days in advance the possible arrival of an outbreak and also map the most difficult areas.
The initiative was formalized after the mayor of Las Heras, Daniel Orozco, will sign a collaboration agreement with AySAM (Aguas y Saneamiento Mendoza), represented by its owner Alejandro Gallego, and the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the UNCuyo (National University of Cuyo), represented by Jorge Barguero, to carry out this monitoring.
We are very happy to celebrate this agreement and implement this new prevention method that will begin in Las Heras and that has no antecedents in Mendoza, said Mayor Orozco. And he added: We know that it is demonstrated by different scientific studies that a trend can be established in the concentrations of covid-19 in wastewater and anticipate a forecast of the cases that we have not yet declared and including a possible outbreak, says Orozco.
For its part, the UNCuyo School of Medical Sciences reported that this early warning system in sewage makes it possible to detect coronavirus in the population of symptomatic, asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people, as fecal elimination has a wider window than respiratory.
He added that the result obtained from a single sample is representative of a population group, which will significantly reduce the demand for consumables and necessary reagents.
Also detail that makes the geographic location of outbreaks feasible when conducting combined sewage and treatment plant studies, anticipating the appearance of positives by swabs.
For his part, the head of AySAM, stated: We have already started doing these studies with the UNCuyo and the Ministry of Health, but the news is that now we will in the manholes in the department.
The official stressed that it will allow us to face a survey by zones, as is already being done in United States and Europe, and know what is happening in different areas of Las Heras.
This Friday, the Lasherino municipality will start the collection in a dozen sewer manhole chambers chosen “strategically”, procedure to be carried out at least every 15 days.
The procedure requires obtaining the samples in the hours of greatest flow of the sewage network, withdraw a minimum amount of liquid per collection point and keep it at four degrees Celsius or less to guarantee the reliability of the analyzes that will be carried out in the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the UNCuyo.
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