LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville researchers said testing wastewater is the best way to monitor community infection and predict possible hospital surges.

New data shines a light on findings with COVID-19, the flu and RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) in the wastewater that flows deep under our feet.

Every week, researchers and scientists at the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute test sewage to monitor COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. If they see something out of the ordinary, they can take action.

“[That] might be very high levels consistently for a few weeks in part of Jefferson County or across the whole country,” said Ted Smith, the institute’s director of the Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil. “That would be [the] early warning for the Health Department to work with the hospital system and providers to prepare for something more serious.”

Data also show an increase in the amount of COVID-19 in Jefferson County’s wastewater.

“We’ve had an increase in people going into the hospital that are testing positive for COVID, but the data from our intensive care unit beds or deaths is not nearly where it was early, say, 2020, 2021,” Smith said. “While we’re tracking some of these health care metrics, we don’t see at this point in time the highest levels of hospitalization that we’ve seen in the past.”

“We know there’s a lot of COVID here, but we also know it’s not getting as many people very sick as it used to.” 

Flu A and B and RSV were detected in Louisville according to the data. All three are stable right now, and there are also higher levels of immunity. 

“We have higher levels of immunity than the beginning of this pandemic ... some of the blunting of this acuity is really probably coming from prior exposure, multiple exposure, multiple vaccinations,” Smith said. 

Smith added it pays to get vaccinated, as there are still multiple viruses running around. Other data points, graphs and information in this research can be found on the institute’s website.