Adapting a technique used to identify everything from drug use in an area to the prevalence of a carcinogen in a community, scientists have gone back to an old source of information on the spread of the coronavirus:  sewage.

According to a story in the Washington Post, scientists are collecting samples of sewage to track the spread of the coronavirus, sometimes being able to identify hot spots before testing results designate such an area.

Scientists from around the world are monitoring human waste in hopes to stopping the spread of the coronavirus in its tracks.  Testing wastewater is significantly cheaper than other mass monitoring programs.  It provides quick, reliable information on the prevalence in a community and can even break it down by block.

Ottawa’s Alex Munter posts a “poop report” daily on Twitter, which has shown the city hasn’t been “flattening the curve” as indicated by samples taking for traditional testing.

Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands and Finland all undertake waste water monitoring on a regular basis, but the coronavirus has taken monitoring to a new level given the speed it can sweep through a region.

In Finland, for example, the nation was experiencing a consistently dropping infection rate, but Tarja Pitkänen, a senior researcher at the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, spotted a continuing warning sign.

“The area may contain unidentified infected people and the virus may be spreading in the population of the area,” Pitkänen announced in a statement.

Within weeks, cases increased.  By early October, the nation was experiencing a new spike.  The poop monitors caught the virus before the testing did.