{"id":275599,"date":"2026-01-09T08:20:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/275599\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T08:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:20:25","slug":"county-public-health-lab-starts-testing-local-wastewater-for-diseases-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/275599\/","title":{"rendered":"County Public Health Lab Starts\u00a0Testing Local Wastewater\u00a0for Diseases\u00a0 | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\tReading Time: 2 minutes<\/p>\n

For the first time, the County\u2019s public health lab\u00a0today\u00a0began\u00a0routine in-house\u00a0wastewater testing,\u00a0with\u00a0the results\u00a0available\u00a0on an\u00a0online\u00a0public\u00a0dashboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Routine\u00a0wastewater testing\u00a0gives\u00a0public health officials\u00a0a snapshot of\u00a0what\u00a0diseases\u00a0are\u00a0circulating\u00a0locally\u00a0and the ability to track trends\u00a0often\u00a0before they are detected\u00a0through\u00a0the medical\u00a0community\u2019s\u00a0robust\u00a0testing.\u00a0Along with the public visibility of the dashboard, trends\u00a0are\u00a0available\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0medical community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This type of testing\u00a0began\u00a0regionally\u00a0during the\u00a0Covid-19 pandemic\u00a0with SEARCH\u00a0(San Diego Epidemiology and\u00a0Research\u00a0for COVID Health<\/a>), which\u00a0was a County supported partnership\u00a0with\u00a0Scripps Research and\u00a0the\u00a0University\u00a0of California San Diego\u00a0which\u00a0operated\u00a0the necessary equipment.\u00a0Federal\u00a0funding\u00a0for SEARCH ended in December\u00a02025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following\u00a0the May 2025 opening of the\u00a0County\u2019s new\u00a0state-of-the-art\u00a0Public Health Lab<\/a>, specialists began the training and equipment certification necessary for wastewater testing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBringing wastewater testing in house\u00a0with our new\u00a0lab is just one example of\u00a0the County\u2019s\u00a0expanded\u00a0ability to protect the public\u2019s health\u00a0and act quickly to\u00a0confront\u00a0emerging disease outbreaks,\u201d said\u202fDr. Sayone Thihalolipavan, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Wastewater testing works by collecting samples\u00a0from regional\u00a0sewage\u00a0treatment plants.\u00a0When people are sick with certain infections like flu or\u00a0Covid,\u00a0the\u00a0viruses\u00a0or\u00a0bacteria\u00a0are shed\u00a0when they use the bathroom, shower,\u00a0or\u00a0wash their hands\u00a0or clothes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wastewater<\/p>\n

Locally,\u00a0sewage\u00a0water\u00a0samples\u00a0are\u00a0collected\u00a0for testing\u00a0from\u00a0the\u00a0Point Loma Wastewater\u00a0Treatment Plant, South Bay Water Reclamation\u00a0Plant\u00a0and the Encina Wastewater Authority.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The County\u2019s wastewater testing\u00a0will routinely\u00a0look for\u00a0Covid-19\u00a0(SARS-CoV-2), Influenza A\u00a0and\u00a0B, and\u00a0respiratory syncytial virus or\u00a0RSV.\u00a0Molecular scientists\u00a0can\u00a0also use sequencing to figure out what\u00a0specific\u00a0strains of\u00a0Covid are\u00a0circulating in San Diego County.\u00a0In the future, the County will expand testing to prioritized diseases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wastewater data is crucial for\u00a0public\u00a0health departments. It provides non-invasive\u00a0and\u00a0anonymous\u00a0information about the health of our community,\u00a0including\u00a0for those\u00a0who\u00a0are\u00a0sick but\u00a0may\u00a0not\u00a0yet\u00a0have any symptoms.\u00a0Wastewater data can be used by public health departments to act quickly before a\u00a0disease spreads\u00a0in a community and track for the recurrence of disease.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Collecting population health data this way\u00a0gives us a snapshot of\u00a0what diseases are affecting\u00a0people locally\u00a0that might be missed by clinical testing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paired with surveillance data,\u00a0public health officials\u00a0can make decisions about\u00a0the deployment of public health tools,\u00a0health\u00a0messaging\u00a0and recommendations\u00a0for the public,\u00a0and\u00a0alerting\u00a0local\u00a0health\u00a0partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People can view wastewater data on a new dashboard available online on the County\u2019s public health website.<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading Time: 2 minutes For the first time, the County\u2019s public health lab\u00a0today\u00a0began\u00a0routine in-house\u00a0wastewater testing,\u00a0with\u00a0the results\u00a0available\u00a0on an\u00a0online\u00a0public\u00a0dashboard.\u00a0 Routine\u00a0wastewater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[10503,18,21059,135,19,17,139635,15517,68899,68900,139636],"class_list":{"0":"post-275599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-covid","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-flu","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-public-health-lab","15":"tag-rsv","16":"tag-sewage","17":"tag-wastewater","18":"tag-wastewater-monitoring"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115864169662009789","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}