<p>Bengaluru: A new paper has identified 11 "bellwether" sewer sites in <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/bengaluru-karnataka-india">Bengaluru</a> that can be surveilled to monitor disease hotspots and act as an early warning system for outbreaks such as <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/covid-19">Covid</a>. </p>.<p>The study was taken up by the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS), in collaboration with the Biome Environmental Trust and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and will be published in the upcoming August 2025 volume of <em>The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia</em> journal. </p>.<p>Researchers collected 2,873 wastewater samples in this longitudinal study from December 2021 to January 2024 at 26 centralised sewershed sites in Bengaluru. </p>.<p>Wastewater samples are often a good data source to capture viral activity in a population, especially if testing for any disease — Covid in this case — has reduced. It also became a crucial tool to identify if Covid has surged or not in communities, bypassing individual testing biases potentially limited due to varied access to healthcare resources. </p>.Sewage, rotting waste, foul odour: Bengaluru's Attur Lake cries for help .<p>Out of the 26, they identified 11 "bellwether" sites — large-sized KC Valley 1, KC Valley 2, Rajacanal and Doddabele; medium-sized Agaram, Nagasandra, KR Puram and Yelahanka; and small-sized Chikkabegur, Chikkabanavara and Lalbagh. Bellwether means something that indicates a trend. </p>.<p>This was arrived at based on the COVID-SURGE algorithm they developed and a modified Excel-based calculator. These sites can serve as a useful sample set for an early warning system at the city level, noted the paper. They provide reliable information on diseases and aid surveillance, without compromising on sample quality, said Farah Ishtiaq, Principal Scientist, TIGS. </p>.<p>The paper argues that these wastewater samples can also be used as an independent and quantitative measure of disease incidence at a population level, even in the absence of large-scale clinical testing. </p>.<p>Combined with genomic data, this model offers an sustainable, high-quality surveillance framework, even in low-resource settings, to detect early signs of an outbreak, identify which areas are seeing a surge by scaling up surveillance, and help governments know when and how to react appropriately, Farah added. </p>.<p>She noted that the model can be applicable to detect other diseases, too, especially respiratory infections such as Influenza A and B. </p>.<p>"If this is integrated with the public health system in our country, it is a good way to fight diseases," she said. </p>
<p>Bengaluru: A new paper has identified 11 "bellwether" sewer sites in <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/bengaluru-karnataka-india">Bengaluru</a> that can be surveilled to monitor disease hotspots and act as an early warning system for outbreaks such as <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/covid-19">Covid</a>. </p>.<p>The study was taken up by the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS), in collaboration with the Biome Environmental Trust and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and will be published in the upcoming August 2025 volume of <em>The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia</em> journal. </p>.<p>Researchers collected 2,873 wastewater samples in this longitudinal study from December 2021 to January 2024 at 26 centralised sewershed sites in Bengaluru. </p>.<p>Wastewater samples are often a good data source to capture viral activity in a population, especially if testing for any disease — Covid in this case — has reduced. It also became a crucial tool to identify if Covid has surged or not in communities, bypassing individual testing biases potentially limited due to varied access to healthcare resources. </p>.Sewage, rotting waste, foul odour: Bengaluru's Attur Lake cries for help .<p>Out of the 26, they identified 11 "bellwether" sites — large-sized KC Valley 1, KC Valley 2, Rajacanal and Doddabele; medium-sized Agaram, Nagasandra, KR Puram and Yelahanka; and small-sized Chikkabegur, Chikkabanavara and Lalbagh. Bellwether means something that indicates a trend. </p>.<p>This was arrived at based on the COVID-SURGE algorithm they developed and a modified Excel-based calculator. These sites can serve as a useful sample set for an early warning system at the city level, noted the paper. They provide reliable information on diseases and aid surveillance, without compromising on sample quality, said Farah Ishtiaq, Principal Scientist, TIGS. </p>.<p>The paper argues that these wastewater samples can also be used as an independent and quantitative measure of disease incidence at a population level, even in the absence of large-scale clinical testing. </p>.<p>Combined with genomic data, this model offers an sustainable, high-quality surveillance framework, even in low-resource settings, to detect early signs of an outbreak, identify which areas are seeing a surge by scaling up surveillance, and help governments know when and how to react appropriately, Farah added. </p>.<p>She noted that the model can be applicable to detect other diseases, too, especially respiratory infections such as Influenza A and B. </p>.<p>"If this is integrated with the public health system in our country, it is a good way to fight diseases," she said. </p>