“Participants in WastewaterSCAN are municipal treatment plants in the United States that serve >10,000 people, with some plants serving up to around 4 million people. The goal of analyzing wastewater at this level is to get a picture of infectious disease occurrence at a community population scale. Sampling at this scale covers a population large enough that positive results for a disease won’t be associated with individuals. What are you testing for? WastewaterSCAN tests samples of solids from municipal wastewater for targets associated with infectious diseases. The concentration of these targets in wastewater is associated with the occurrence of the related disease in the community, and changes in the concentrations of these markers in wastewater over time tell us about changes in the rates of disease in the community. WastewaterSCAN only tests for analytes that are related to infectious diseases. All of our methods are published and open, and are linked in sections below.

As of September 2023, we are testing for the following 12 pathogens:

• Respiratory pathogens: SARS-CoV-2 using a conserved target on the N gene, Influenza A (IAV), Influenza B (IBV), Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV), and Enterovirus D68 (EVD68)
• Gastrointestinal pathogens: Norovirus GII, Rotavirus, and Human Adenovirus Group F
• Other pathogens of concern: Candida auris (C.auris), Hepatitis A (Hep A) and Mpox…”