Poo testing could provide coronavirus breakthrough: Expert says examining waste could help discover which people are carrying COVID-19

Testing excrement could help provide early detection of who has COVID-19 before they show other symptoms, an expert said.  

Researchers at Australian National University found people infected with the virus begin excreting traces of COVID-19 almost a week before the flu-like symptoms start to emerge. 

A similar study in the Netherlands showed positive traces of coronavirus were found in fecal matter before before cases were officially reported.

Researchers at Australian National University will look through defecation in hopes of finding signs of traces of coronavirus (stock)

Epidemiologist Dr Aparna Lal said that if there is early detection in excrement then it could help the government debate on what restrictions to ease 

Epidemiologist Dr Aparna Lal said that if there is early detection in sewage, it could narrow down efforts to find people in the community who are carrying the illness.

'If we can start detecting it, it may be a way that we can evaluate the impact of easing the restrictions,' Dr Aparna Lal she told The Age on Monday.

'What this study will do is let us see whether sewage could be used to continuously monitor the presence of the virus in the community even when case numbers go down.

'This work will also tell us if sewage monitoring can serve as a warning system to give us a heads up before case numbers go up.' 

Professor and microbiologists Gertjan Medema worked on the study in Amersfoort, in the Netherlands and said tests from one sewage plant could potentially represent one million people, The Australian reported. 

Samples will be taken from Canberra sewage where they will then be examined in labs at the ANU John Curtin School of Medical Research (stock)

Samples will be taken from Canberra sewage where they will then be examined in labs at the ANU John Curtin School of Medical Research.

Experts will then determine if there are traces of the killer virus in the fecal matter.   

Immunologist and Nobel laureate Professor Peter Doherty said the method sounds 'pretty unattractive' but is a good screening measure into how many people could be infected. 

'With those two viruses at least, we can pick up one in 10,000 infected people so that would be a very good screening measure, and I know a number of people in the country looking at this and I expect we'll do it.'