A programme has been expanded to evaluate how wastewater monitoring could be used to detect a wider range of dangerous pathogens has been launched by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Over the coming months, UKHSA laboratories, using £1.3 million of investment from the UK Integrated Security Fund (ISF), will assess the use of cutting-edge technologies to improve the UK’s ability to detect and identify the genetic material of various viruses in wastewater, tracking how the amount of virus detected changes over time.
This programme builds on the UK’s existing wastewater surveillance for polio and, if successful, could develop the UK’s capability to detect dangerous diseases such as Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, a severe disease endemic in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and parts of Asia that has never before been targeted in wastewater testing.
The programme will also explore the potential of these technologies to create an early warning system for pathogens such as Mpox, West Nile Virus, and Lassa, which could in future, enable the UK to detect and take faster action on outbreaks, which, as we saw in the COVID-19 pandemic, is vital for an effective response.
The UKHSA wastewater monitoring project for pathogen detection is one of several biosecurity projects funded through the UK Integrated Security Fund (UKISF) Biosecurity Portfolio, launched by the Cabinet Office earlier this year.
