Environmental Surveillance: an emerging public health tool

Environmental Surveillance of pathogens in wastewater is an important tool to support public health action, particularly for infectious agents that may havre a high rate of asymptomatic spread or may have gaps in other types of surveillance. This episode will introduce participants to the history and principles of environmental surveillance. Participants will be introduced to considerations made when establishing an environmental surveillance program, and will be informed on the basic approach to conducting environmental surveillance. Finally, this episode will compare and contrast well-established environmental surveillance programs for Polio and SARS-CoV-2.
After viewing this lecture, participants should be able to:
1. Define the role of environmental surveillance.
2. Describe the basic approach to conducting environmental surveillance.
3. Identify factors that must be considered when establishing an environmental surveillance program.
John Scott Meschke, Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health.