Wastewater Samples Detect Traces Of Polio In New York Wastewater

Beyond screening for routine contaminants in the influent that arrives at wastewater treatment plants every day, wastewater analysis is playing a growing role in identifying the spread of deadly and highly infectious diseases. And officials have now turned to wastewater testing following the reemergence of a notorious virus in New York State.

“New testing has found that the polio virus infected at least one Rockland County resident and was present in wastewater sampled at a sewage treatment plant,” The Journal News reported. “The detective work on past wastewater samples began after the state and county reported a case of polio had occurred in Rockland County, the first in the U.S. since 2013.”