Wastewater surveillance is a promising approach to monitor biological and chemical contaminants on a community level, and has recently been shown effective for the early detection of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks. While much has been learned in the past year, much work remains to establish an enduring capability for wastewater surveillance poised to address new targets as they emerge.
The goal of this workshop is to identify and prioritize standards needs and technology/measurement gaps and propose a potential path forward to develop standards that help enable a robust, comparable wastewater surveillance capability. The workshop will be held on June 14, 15 and 18.
Topics to be discussed include:
* lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic response
* the state of the art in measurement science and technology for the entire wastewater surveillance workflow, and
* challenges in achieving comparable wastewater surveillance results across locations.
Stakeholder input will inform future standards development activities, including consensus-based documentary standards focused on best practices as well as reference materials, and ensure that any standards developed are fit for purpose and aligned with the needs of the community. Ultimately, these standards will be designed to help provide a foundation for communities and organizations to have increased confidence in wastewater surveillance results to better inform public health and safety decisions across the nation.
This free workshop is recommended for participants involved in all aspects of wastewater surveillance from sampling to results/reporting, including those from government, public health, testing and manufacturing, academia, and non-profit organizations.