June 25, 2025
Overview:
For many years, wastewater and environmental surveillance (WES) has helped track and eliminate diseases such as polio, and more recently, it’s shown promise for detecting other infectious diseases early. However, in low-resource settings, using WES involves important trade-offs between the benefits, including early outbreak warning, and the costs, including money and staffing. Key decisions such as how often to collect samples, where to collect them from, and how accurate the tests are can all affect how well the system works.
This One Health Trust collaborative study looks at ways to make the best use of WES to catch infectious disease outbreaks early, especially in places with limited resources.
The Question:
How often should WES samples be collected, and from which places are best to procure the most useful information about disease spread, while dealing with limited economic resources?
The Findings:
The researchers used a simple mathematical model with two connected communities called patches to understand how to get the most out of WES. They found that if the two communities are closely linked and the testing works well, it might be better to test just one place more often instead of testing both less often.
They also looked at the value of information, which measures how helpful surveillance data is for making public health decisions. They found that as people or animals move more between the two areas, WES can detect outbreaks faster, but this also means diseases spread more quickly, which makes the situation more serious.
This model can be adjusted for more locations and different diseases. The results can help public health leaders decide how to set up WES in a smart, cost-effective way, especially when resources are limited.
Read the article in PLOS Computational Biology here.
