After all, wastewater contains saliva, urine, feces, shed skin, and more. You can consider it a rich biological sample. Wastewater analysis helped scientists understand how Covid was spreading during the pandemic. It’s still early days, but this is starting to help us control measles.
Globally, some progress has been made toward eliminating measles, largely thanks to vaccination efforts. Such efforts could result in an 88% decline in measles deaths between 2000 and 2024. According to the World Health Organization. It estimates that “about 59 million lives have been saved by measles vaccination” since 2000.
Yet, it is estimated that 95,000 people will die from measles in 2024 alone – the majority of whom were young children. And cases are rising in Europe, Southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean region.
Last year, the US saw its highest levels of measles in decades. The country is on track to lose its measles elimination status – a regrettable fate that happened Canada In November the country recorded more than 5,000 cases, the most in a little more than a year.
Public health efforts to stop the spread of measles—which is incredibly contagious—usually involve vaccination campaigns as well as clinical surveillance in health care settings. But scientists have also started paying attention to waste water.
