Advancing Global Health: Empowering Developing Nations through Wastewater Surveillance

The global adoption of wastewater surveillance as a cost-effective measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed a number of notable advancements and expansions across the WBE landscape. The economically advantageous nature of the technique renders it particularly appealing to developing nations and other communities facing economic and resource constraints, against limited healthcare access. However, these communities have historically received limited attention in the global dissemination and advancement of wastewater surveillance applications. Wastewater surveillance stands as an instrumental tool for enabling comprehensive health surveillance in resource-limited regions by anonymously sampling a portion of the population using a toileting facility, thereby conferring a dual benefit of enhancing global public health and reducing the health equity gap between developed and developing regions on a global scale.

During this webinar, we will delve into a partnership established between the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Malawi, Africa), the University of Louisville's Christina Lee Brown Environmental Institute (Louisville, Kentucky), and Eurofins Pandemic Prevention Services (Sacramento, California). This collaboration is dedicated to broadening analytical service access to wastewater and non-sewered sanitation system surveillance in developing nations across Africa. The webinar will carefully explore the achievements and challenges encountered during the program's implementation, as well as outline the envisaged future steps for both the program and the global expansion of wastewater surveillance throughout developing nations globally.

Original Airdate:  Tuesday, November 7, 2023
 
Length:  60 minutes 

Presenter: Adam Gushgari - Eurofins Environment Testing, Petros Chigwechokha - Malawi University of Science and Technology, Rochelle Holm - University of Louisville