Notable Pandemics Throughout History Pandemic Years Pathogen
Wastewater analysis is helping to battle COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is shed in feces by infected individuals and can be measured in wastewater. Wastewater analysis measures the levels of non-infectious RNA in wastewater, not the viable, infectious virus itself. HudsonAlpha and the City of Huntsville are working together to battle COVID-19 and mon- itor the disease spread within our community. The Huntsville Water Pollution Control Depart- ment delivers an untreated wastewater sample to HudsonAlpha on a bi-weekly basis. The sam- ples are then filtered to produce concentrated viral nucleic acid samples. The RNA is extracted and run through a digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system to detect the amount of RNA in the sample. Wastewater monitoring captures a large com- munity sample and can help city leaders antic- ipate areas where the virus is likely to spread and limit the impact through preventative and protective measures.
Location
uncertain, possibly measles, typhoid fever or smallpox
Egypt, Libya, Persia, Greece
Plague of Athens
430–426 BCE
Antonine Plague
165–180
Roman Empire
believed to be smallpox (variola virus) plague (Yersinia pestis bacteria) plague (Yersinia pestis bacteria
Plague of Justinian
541–
Mediterranean
549
Black Death
1346–
Eurasia
1353
smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, plague, typhus, malaria
Columbian Exchange
1492–
Native Ameri- can populations across the Caribbean and Americas
1600
cholera (Vibrio cholerae bacteria)
Cholera Pandemics
1817– today
Global
7 pandemics
influenza A virus (H1N1)
1918 Flu
1918–
Global
1919
1957 Flu
1957–
influenza A virus (H2N2)
Global
1958
1968 Flu
1968–
influenza A virus (H3N2)
Global
1969
human immunodeficiency virus
HIV/AIDS
1981– today
Global
Dr. Ben Henderson measures SARS-CoV-2 levels in the Huntsville wastewater on a Drop- let Digital PCR system in the Myers Lab at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.
SARS
2003
coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
37 countries
influenza A virus (H1N1pdm09)
Swine Flu
2009–
Global
2010
Zika
2015–
flavivirus (Zika virus)
Global
2016
COVID-19
2019– today
coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)
Global
Pandemic Preparedness and Responses l Surveillance to monitor potential infectious threats l Prevent and extinguish outbreaks before they escalate to pandemic scale l Communicate protective and preventative actions to minimize transmission l Detect, report and track cases rapidly and accurately l Reduce interactions between infected and uninfected populations — travel restrictions, quarantine, physical distancing, school and business closures l Decrease infectivity of patients and severity of illness through treatments with antivirals, antibodies etc. l Reduce susceptibility of uninfected people through vaccines
19
SCIENCE FOR LIFE
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker