Ottawa researchers set to test for polio in the city's wastewater

Delatolla, who is an engineering professor at uOttawa and co-lead investigator on Ottawa’s coronavirus wastewater monitoring program, said he hopes to have polio surveillance running in the next two weeks. It is one of an expanding list of viruses now being monitored in Ottawa’s wastewater by Delatolla’s lab. In addition to COVID-19, the lab has monitored wastewater for influenza and monkeypox, and has a test ready to monitor for the common respiratory virus RSV.

One retired researcher, who discovered polio in Ottawa’s wastewater in 1974, said he fears it could make a comeback because it was never completely eradicated around the world.said Syed Sattar, emeritus professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at uOttawa. “If it comes back, I am afraid it will come back with a vengeance because it is quite prolific.”Article content

Wastewater is also considered an important way to monitor polio because so many people who are infected have no symptoms, although it still shows up in their feces and they can spread it. About 72 per cent of people infected with the poliovirus won’t develop symptoms. About 25 per cent will suffer flu-like symptoms. But one in 200 will develop more serious symptoms, such as meningitis or paralysis.

The province of Ontario funds testing for the virus that causes COVID-19 in Ottawa and elsewhere as part of its pandemic surveillance efforts. But Delatolla said a lack of federal or provincial funding for expanding wastewater testing is a barrier. Delatolla noted that there are concerns about the kind of “twindemic” of COVID-19 and influenza this fall and winter, something being seen in parts of the southern hemisphere at a time when pandemic restrictions have been eased.

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