Wastewater Scan is working with Wausau and numerous other communities to track what goes down the toilet and to the treatment plant.
"Wastewater scan is a program that monitors wastewater from all across the united states so we have one hundred eighty six sites in thirty six states and we receive samples from all this sites to our lab where we test them for markers of different infectious diseases," said Marlene Wolfe, Program Director for Wastewater Scan.
The pandemic showed us how important it is to track these harmful diseases, and getting down and dirty with wastewater can really make a difference.
"Humans carry these viruses in their feces and it plays a key role in the early detection of these viruses so we decided as a city to join this wastewater scan surveillance and monitors these viruses,” said Ben Brooks, Wausau Wastewater and Collections Superintendent.
Above all its highly recommended that if you are sick, or starting to feel sick, seek medical attention as soon as possible, and leave the speculation of diseases to the professionals testing the water.
"So, it’s really important when people are sick that they go to the doctor and they get tested to often find out what the problem is, right, and that information can be collected and reported so that we can understand what the number of cases for a disease are in the community or how common that disease is,” Wolfe said.
The partnership has been ongoing since spring of this year, and both sides are looking to continue for the foreseeable future.
