Wastewater is being used to track Covid-19. The waste water data can show changes in disease trends before trends are seen in clinical cases. Wastewater monitoring can detect infection in a community whether or not people have symptoms.
Unlike other types of public health reporting, wastewater monitoring does not depend on people having access to healthcare, visiting a doctor when sick or availability of testing for an infection. From toilet flush to results only takes about five to seven days.
Wastewater monitoring from a single treatment plant can provide information on community-level disease trends for hundreds, thousands, even millions of people. Wastewater monitoring can meet changing public health needs because it can be rapidly adapted to track emerging health threats.
CDC is working to better understand how wastewater monitoring can also be used to detect and respond to other infectious disease threats. Wastewater data is most useful when used with other surveillance data. When reviewed together, wastewater and other surveillance data can provide a more complete picture of disease spread within a community. This can be used to track the disease in a community to better prepare hospitals and such for outbreaks.
