Nairobi COVID-19 monitoring (Kenya)
Pilot project to monitor the circulation of COVID-19 in sewage water collected in the city of Nairobi, Kenya
| Region | Nairobi, Kenya |
| Period | 2020 |
| Project partners |
KWR Water Research Institute, Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) – Directorate of Health Services, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) |
| Funding | NL Business department of the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), KWR, NMS – Directorate of Health Services, ILRI, NCWSC, Waternet |
Background
In Kenya, knowledge about the prevalence of COVID-19 is limited and clinical surveillance has limited capacity. Therefore, monitoring the virus in sewage offers an opportunity to gain insight into the presence and spread of the virus in a specific catchment area.
KWR, a Dutch knowledge institute, has developed and demonstrated that sewage surveillance can be a sensitive tool to monitor the circulation of COVID-19 in communities (Medema et al., 2020 ()). The approach relies on the fact that infected people will shed virus, in particular in faeces and has since been implemented in numerous countries around the world. Monitoring data provides information about the occurrence of the virus which can be used to gauge the situation, evaluate the effect of measures and detect insurgence of infections at an early stage.
Our impact
Waste water data will be collected and compared to the epidemiological data about the spread of COVID-19 in Nairobi to further interpret the observed trends and potential outbreaks in Nairobi at an early stage. An online platform will be developed to visualise data to follow the developments of the spread of the virus and communicate it to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services and other relevant Kenyan authorities.
