With so many worldwide travelers now in Eugene-Springfield, local and state public health officials are monitoring whether a variety of diseases are traveling with people to the world championships — through a partnership with OSU using its program to test sewage for COVID-19.
The World Athletics Championships, which began Friday and will end Sunday, has brought tens of thousands to the area while the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing. But public health officials on the lookout for more than COVID-19, through testing wastewater, they can detect viruses not typically found in the area, such as hepatitis A, hepatitis E, measles and MERS.
Though restrictions on travel have been greatly reduced since the height of the pandemic, such a large, diverse set of tourists coming to Eugene-Springfield poses risks. Testing is a tool that could give health officials a warning ahead of a case surge.
“If polio enters our community, we are fundamentally unprepared to deal with that specific communicable disease by virtue of the fact we haven’t had to deal with it for years,” Davis said. “Knowing that it has popped up around the world numerous times over the last few years, it behooves us to have that time to jump into that polio response if necessary.”
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Each day of the championships, wastewater will be collected and tested, with results posted online within 48 hours. The OHA wastewater testing dashboard website shows the map of concentrations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, at various locations, such as those around Hayward Field. A spike in concentration of the virus in wastewater at the sites could be indicative of an influx of sick people visiting Eugene for the world championships using bathrooms there.
“Wastewater testing helps us look at what virus particles we have in our community,” LCPH spokesman Jason Davis said Monday. “That’s not the same as a positive case, but it does indicate there’s a presence of the disease in our community, and it gives us a leg up in our response.”
SARS-CoV-2 is being tracked by concentration levels at various sites, other viruses are tracked for having any presence at all.
Between June 29 and Saturday, the only other virus detected through monitoring was influenza A, the flu virus.
Prior to the start of the world championships, sampling detected the presence of hepatitis A. Hepatitis A cases occur sporadically in Lane County, LCPH Officer Dr. Patrick Luedtke said in a news release, so detection isn’t very surprising.
Hepatitis A causes liver inflammation, nausea, and other symptoms. The disease spread by person-to-person contact and contaminated food or drink. Hepatitis A vaccinations have been recommended for Oregon children since 1999.
Luedtke said LCPH is encouraging people to stay on top of all their vaccinations ahead of the influx of global visitors. Lane County’s already lower rate of routine vaccines such as measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and polio dropped further when the pandemic hit.
“From a public health standpoint, I’m not scared, but I’m concerned,” Luedtke said before the championships started. “We are a community at elevated risk when you bring 190 countries here and our vaccine rates for routine vaccines are lower.”
Contact reporter Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@registerguard.com. Follow on Twitter @DuvernayOR.
