For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
Wastewater surveillance captures the presence of infectious disease in the community with and without symptoms over time. Regular measurement through testing can aid public health officials in determining if infection rates are increasing or decreasing in the population, in some cases 5-15 days ahead of clinical samples. As described in a recent article from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, wastewater surveillance was a valuable component of the U.S. public health response in the nation’s emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is worthy of further development and continued investment. The report offers recommendations to strengthen nationwide coordination and ensure a national wastewater surveillance system that is flexible, equitable, and sustainable to inform the public health response to COVID-19 and future infectious diseases.
“Wastewater Surveillance is a valuable part of the Public Health toolkit” as cited during the US CDC International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, Georgia, August 2022.
While initially focused on COVID-19 surveillance, National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) can be expanded to include additional infectious diseases, antibiotic resistance genes (ARG), foodborne bacteria, and bacterial diseases. Robust wastewater testing in communities will improve the reach of Public Health efforts by lowering the barrier to sample collection, which is typically reliant on having access to healthcare for sample collection, testing and analysis. Community based wastewater testing efforts will lower the cost of screening efforts and improve confidence in the data collected.
This strategy is adaptable such that Public health labs can expand for full capabilities ranging from detection to characterization (Next generation sequencing (NGS), COVID-19 and Monkeypox assays.
The Applied Biosystems QuantStudio Absolute Q Digital PCR System is a tool used to quantify viral targets in a given sample without the need for a standard curve. It is a robust method of quantifying SARS-CoV-2, and is supported for reporting results to the US National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS). This can allow State, local, tribal, and territorial health departments, along with Wastewater treatment plants to utilize the QuantStudio Absolute Q dPCR system to begin coordinated surveillance in their communities.
Laboratories that use the QuantStudio Absolute Q dPCR system report results to NWSS through the Data Collation and Integration for Public Health Response (DCIPHER) portal. The NWSS DCIPHER system analyzes data and reports results to the appropriate higher health department. The laboratories who participate in community wastewater testing for the NWSS are encouraged to join the Utilities Communities of Practice hosted by the Water Environment Federation.
We at Thermo Fisher Scientific recognize wastewater surveillance is now a permanent tool in the surveillance kit for Public Health. We are committed to working closely with our partners in Public Health to advance this emerging science and technology as we understand more about unlocking the power of wastewater.
Various entities also provided information on available resources on conducting wastewater monitoring programs. To name some of them, APHL recently provided an overview of the SARS-CoV-2 wastewater laboratory setup and analytical process to orient public health laboratories as they implement wastewater testing.
The American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL) also provided a checklist for the laboratories on wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 (Wastewater/SARS-CoV-2 checklist draft). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also provides a summary with the objective to summarize the information available on conducting these wastewater monitoring programs in the United States (A Compendium of U.S. Wastewater Surveillance to Support COVID-19 Public Health Response). Lastly, Pandemic Prevention Institute outlines the urgent need to increase investments in wastewater surveillance to detect and contain health threats in a recent article as well. Click here to read the press release published in Nature Medicine.
The American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL) also provided a SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance checklist for laboratories to follow (Wastewater/SARS-CoV-2 checklist draft). In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided a summary with the objective to summarize the information available on conducting these wastewater monitoring programs in the United States (A Compendium of U.S. Wastewater Surveillance to Support COVID-19 Public Health Response). Lastly, the Pandemic Prevention Institute outlines the urgent need to increase investments in wastewater surveillance to detect and contain health threats in a recent article.
To learn more about Wastewater surveillance using digital PCR, please go to www.thermofisher.com/dPCR-wastewater.
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