Accurate, timely, and cost-effective disease surveillance is needed to better inform public health decisions. Current methods are not optimal for predicting outbreaks before a disease variant establishes itself widely in a community. Researchers have found that detecting coronavirus and other pathogens in wastewater provides insight into local infection rates, can identify new outbreaks, and help stop the spread in local populations. Bio-Rad offers several solutions to address the needs of scientists studying coronavirus in wastewater, measuring its antibodies, and quantifying and monitoring existing and new variants.
Wastewater Testing for Coronavirus & other Pathogens
Wastewater testing can be used to detect coronavirus and other pathogens shed in the community, providing near real-time surveillance for potential outbreaks. It provides a more complete snapshot than clinical testing and can serve as an early warning system for COVID-19 and other disease outbreaks.
Bio-Rad's ddPCR technology can more effectively predict outbreaks due to its inherent advantages over traditional nucleic acid tests.
COVID-19 Public Health Studies
Surveying the seroprevalence of antibodies is key to understanding infection.and exposure rates, and modeling transmission in local communities.
Bio-Rad's Bio-Plex coronavirus Serology Assays for RUO provide flexible options to measure anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a population.
Mpox Surveillance by qPCR
To aid surveillance activities, Bio-Rad offers a new multiplexed RUO qPCR method to detect both viral clades of Mpox in human samples. See an example of this format in the new application note.