Abstract

Wastewater based epidemiology (WBE), i.e., the tracking of presence and abundance of pathogens in the sewage system has a long history but only really gained public attention during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, when many countries decided to use WBE based tools as one of the measures to track spread and severity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In Scotland regular sampling in Wastewater Treatment Works across the country started in May 2020 and from January 2021 until March 2024 Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland (BioSS) was contracted by the Scottish Government to conduct the statistical analysis and reporting of the data. In this presentation we will discuss that WBE proved to be a powerful public health tool during the pandemic with many challenges remaining at the same time. We will examine issues like sampling design, adapting the analysis to changes in variants and available data sources, reducing the effect of laboratory-based variation and the more fundamental question of what Public Health value WBE can have as a stand-alone tool without additional case monitoring.