The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) confirm that wastewater surveillance provided a valuable tool for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 circulation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, surveillance has expanded from 20 to 53 jurisdictions across the United States, with increasing capacity to test for more respiratory pathogens.
Details in the CDC-NWSS December 1, 2023 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) highlight the use of wastewater data by the four NWSS Centers of Excellence, which include California; Colorado; Houston, Texas; and Wisconsin, to guide public health action during the 2022–23 respiratory disease season.
The four CDC-funded NWSS Centers of Excellence, established during 2021–2022, translated wastewater data into real-time public health action for multiple respiratory pathogens, highlighting the contribution of wastewater surveillance in monitoring disease circulation and helping to guide public health response. During 2022–23, wastewater sampling covered a large proportion of the sites’ populations: 94% (Houston, Texas), 67% (California), 65% (Colorado), and 50% (Wisconsin).
MMWR Weekly publishes information useful to readers in the public health community, clinicians, researchers, teachers and students, and the news media. Reports are based on science (especially epidemiology) or on public health policy or practice.