This session was held as a part of ESCAIDE 2023, ECDC's annual conference on applied infectious disease epidemiology.
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Summary of the content
Wastewater surveillance is a promising approach to gathering information about the health of a population, and has gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential tool for public health decision-making. This session explores the potential benefits and limitations of wastewater surveillance, along with the lessons learned from recent experiences for different agents and populations. Experts discuss wastewater surveillance as one piece of the puzzle, its feasibility and its possible contributions to for future surveillance of a broader range of biological markers in different settings.
Chairs (learn more about the chairs on the ESCAIDE website)
Speakers (learn more about the speakers on the ESCAIDE website)
11:05-29:40 In the context of the EU joint-action on wastewater surveillance, Marta Vargha discusses the work being carried out in the context of the EU joint-action on wastewater surveillance and how data can be used for public health decision-making. Wastewater surveillance is a multifaceted tool and should not be seen as a 'one size fits all'; it requires public health bodies to determine where they can use it an for what purposes. She also explores some of the challenges and limitations, such as questions on equity and complementarity with other surveillance tools, and answers questions from the audience.
29:43-49:40 Paul Griffiths discusses his experience at EMCDDA as an early adopter of wastewater surveillance data for monitoring drug use and addiction, and how data was used alongside other surveillance tools and integrated into decision-making. He also expands on ethical concerns, such as consent, ensuring data privacy and precluding the use of data by law enforcement, before answering questions from the audience.
49:43-1:07:48 Marion Koopmans discusses her work as a virologist at Erasmus Medical Centre, working on emerging infections, and her vision for a national wastewater surveillance system. She reflects on the long history of wastewater surveillance and the rapid developments in recent years around genome sequencing, specifically metagenomics. She looks at different innovations and uses of wastewater data beyond the COVID pandemic and asks if a new ‘catch all’ approach is needed, and what this would involve for public health and the ethical issues it would raise.
You may want to increase your knowledge on wastewater surveillance by listening to a recording of a virtual training ECDC hosted on this topic.
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