California Researchers Find Monkeypox DNA in Wastewater

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“They’re also expanding their operations and launching monitoring for monkeypox in wastewater in a total of eight states, including Georgia, Michigan, and Texas.”

According to Greenwire, researchers are looking into the nation’s sewers to track and confirm the spread of a contagious virus —  monkeypox.

Man hole cover for sewer entry with iron grate on street in a city

Stanford University researchers have been monitoring wastewater for Covid-19 at ten treatment plants in western California for the past two years, including sites in Silicon Valley, Sacramento, Palo Alto, and several other cities in California’s Bay Area. In June, they added the monkeypox virus to their assay.

They found the virus at almost every site.

“We have seen it in almost all the places where we work,” said Alexandria Boehm, a Stanford civil and environmental engineering professor.

They didn’t find the live virus, but they did find the presence of the genetic material in the areas beyond the Bay Areas. The Bay area is a hotbed of homosexual activity.

They found the virus in every wastewater treatment site except for the University of California, Davis. It’s especially prevalent in San Francisco and San Jose. They’re hotbeds also.

It means that at least one person is infected at every site.

The researchers have been collecting samples daily for the past 18 months.

The researchers are now trying to get the word out. They are expanding their operations and launching monitoring for monkeypox in wastewater in eight states, including Georgia, Michigan, and Texas. They are sharing their information, hoping other researchers will pick up on this.

This is in time for the midterms.


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