Wastewater Monitoring Project Could Catch Next Pandemic Early, Says Health Agency

The UK Health Security Agency is looking to set up an early warning system ahead of future pandemics, launching a £1.3 million (around $1.75 million) program to identify "cutting-edge technologies" which could turn people's pee and poop into valuable data on the spread of viruses.

"Wastewater monitoring has the potential to be central to our work on pathogens that threaten public health. It shows great promise as a cost-effective way for us to quickly detect a range of emerging pathogens, which is vital for an effective response," said UKHSA chief data bod Professor Steven Riley of the plan.

"This is an exciting and important project. The diversity of biological threats is increasing globally, and it's crucial that we stay at the cutting edge of new technology to detect them."

The idea of tracking the spread of a virus through monitoring for its genetic material in wastewater isn't new, even in the UK: the UKHSA already carries out routine sampling for poliovirus, in partnership with the World Health Organization as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The same approach was used during the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic, too, though while other nations continued their monitoring programs, the UK ceased its own in March 2022 under the "Living with COVID Plan" of the time.

The UKHSA's investment is to be focused on the detection and tracking of endemic diseases which have not yet reached pandemic levels: the Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, Mpox, West Nile Virus, and Lassa have been named as candidates for monitoring.

The Register understands that the funding does not mean a return to regular wastewater testing for COVID-19.

UKHSA chief data scientist Dr Nick Watkins told The Register: "Wastewater monitoring has the potential to be an effective way to quickly detect a range of emerging pathogens and is already used as part of our environmental surveillance for poliovirus. It's therefore important that we continue developing our capability in this area to understand how it can best be used in our response to outbreaks."

Watkins added: "This project will be looking at a number of approaches to wastewater surveillance, including quantitative targeted testing via qPCR; targeted enrichment sequencing; metagenomic sequencing; and the Advanced Rapid Technology for Infection Control - the ARTIC Method - which is specifically designed to sequence viral pathogens. By comparing these approaches side by side, we are building a strong evidence base to support future decision-making around the use of wastewater surveillance for public health."

There have been a few reported breakthroughs in the field of wastewater monitoring, including a paper published last year detailing microfluidic "sentinel sensors" based on functionalized folded paper which provide "low-cost, rapid, and user-friendly" detection of COVID-19 and influenza pathogens in wastewater samples. Other projects have shied away from liquid waste and focused on the detection of airborne pathogens using in-building sensors.

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The £1.3 million in funding earmarked for the project, meanwhile, comes courtesy of the UK Integrated Security Fund (UKISF), announced by the former government in March last year as a replacement for the earlier Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) with a wider remit and a total budget approaching £1 billion (around $1.34 billion) – specifically the Biosecurity Portfolio section of the fund, which was launched by the Cabinet Office earlier this year in an expansion to its originally-stated aims.

"Our first responsibility is to keep people safe, and the Biological Security Strategy and our new Resilience Action Plan sets out how health security is an essential part of our national security," claimed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden in a pre-prepared statement on the announcement. "This new cutting-edge wastewater monitoring project has the potential to be a valuable tool in our armory - helping us prepare for and rapidly detect future outbreaks as we learn lessons from the pandemic." ®