Implementing New ACIL Guidance for Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2

Wastewater Surveillance - State of the Science and Its Uses for Monitoring Public Health
Oral Presentation

Presented by J. Bates
Prepared by J. Bates
IDEXX, One IDEXX Dr, Westbrook, ME, 04092, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 207-837-3646

ABSTRACT

Starting as early as March of 2020, researchers identified and began to use wastewater surveillance as a tool to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Wastewater surveillance provides a cost effective and advance warning of changes in COVID-19 infection patterns in a sewershed. The technique has been deployed around the world to provide important information for public health decision makers. Because the results of this testing is used to make decisions that affect public health, ensuring the quality of results is critical. The ACIL led a diverse stakeholder group that developed a QA/QC checklist for laboratories to follow to ensure labs follow best practice when performing testing for wastewater surveillance. This presentation will introduce the checklist and case studies of real world wastewater surveillance implementations to demonstrate the importance of this new guidance from the ACIL.

Note: the ACIL checklist has not been released on the ACIL website yet, but it has been shared widely and is available to all interested. It will be listed on the ACIL website at some point in the future.