The European Commission has just launched a new tool that supports the tracking of the spread of infectious diseases by analysing wastewater: the European Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard. It displays data from across the EU by bringing together existing national and research-based dashboards. By providing near real-time information on pathogen trends, the dashboard can support public health authorities in their efforts to track, predict, and respond promptly to disease outbreaks.
The dashboard was developed by the EU Wastewater Observatory for Public Health of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in collaboration with the European Health Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).This tool is designed to support the integration of wastewater testing into EU public health surveillance activities.
Recognising the interlinkages between human and environmental health, in line with the One Health approach, a number of EU initiatives are being put in place to ensure surveillance of health parameters in water to reduce health risks and prevent outbreaks. The revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, that entered into force this month, requires Member States to establish national systems for urban wastewater surveillance for monitoring public health parameters with the objective to support quick decision-making in case of a public health emergency. The upcoming Water Resilience Strategy will further strengthen the One Health approach through measures to enhance knowledge and reduce water pollution.
A smarter, faster approach to disease tracking
Traditionally, public health surveillance relies on clinical reporting — i.e. testing and diagnosing individuals. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that wastewater surveillance can add helpful supplementary surveillance data for monitoring epidemiological situations, providing an early, more holistic signal of disease spread. By tracking the circulation of pathogens, wastewater-based surveillance can give health authorities a head start in identifying potential disease waves and might detect known viral variants before they show up in clinical settings.
The European Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard is setting the stage for a transnational disease monitoring platform. It currently includes data on three key pathogens (SARS-CoV-2, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza) across eleven European countries, and is supported by more than one million measurements. The dashboard is accessible to anyone free of charge.
A unified response across Europe and beyond
The EU Wastewater Observatory for Public Health aims to establish a unified wastewater surveillance system that can provide consistent data to health authorities and help coordinate cross-border response to health emergencies. To achieve this, the dashboard is projected to incorporate data about more countries and pathogens in the future.
The dashboard could ultimately connect data sources from other world regions under the Global Consortium for Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance for Public Health (GLOWACON). This initiative, launched by the European Commission in collaboration with key global partners, aims to create an international sentinel system for the early detection, prevention, and real-time monitoring of epidemic threats and outbreaks.