Periodic examination of sewage for the virus of poliomyelitis

Abstract

This communication records an additional example of the detection of the virus of poliomyelitis in urban sewage. If we assume that the virus detected had a direct human origin and that this is represented, even remotely in Fig. 1, then either the heaviness of the contamination of the sewage, or the amount of dilution which the virus tolerated, are truly amazing. The positive result and its relation to cases of poliomyelitis reported add little to our knowledge of the pathogenesis of poliomyelitis, but at least the data are of some special epidemiological significance. The nature of this is not yet obvious, chiefly, perhaps, because it is not yet known whether the increase of cases precedes or follows an increase in the hypothetical basal level of the virus in sewage. However, as far as the data go they do not suggest that the virus is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year and that epidemics of paralysis are conditioned chiefly by variations in susceptibility which is postulated by Aycock's (5) hypothesis of autarcesis in poliomyelitis. However, it seems likely that the solution of this problem must await the development of better methods for it must be admitted that our present ones are crude. © 1942, Rockefeller University Press., All rights reserved.