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)
- Jacobo Mendioroz - Sub-director General of Surveillance and Response to Public Health Emergencies, Public Health Agency of Catalonia (Spain)
- Henriette de Valk - Head of Unit, Foodborne, Vectorborne and Zoonotic Infections Unit, Santé Publique
France
Speakers (learn more about the speakers on the ESCAIDE website)
- Marta Vargha - Head of the Water Hygiene Department, National Center for Public Health and
Pharmacy, Hungary
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.
- Paul Griffiths - Scientific Director of the European
Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
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.
- Marion Koopmans - Head of the Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, the Netherlands
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.