Development of Responsive, Reliable and Accurate Wastewater Surveillance Diagnostics of Infectious Diseases

2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行对公共卫生资源造成的压力导致了严重急性呼吸综合征-2病毒废水监测（CoV-2 WWS）的开发和全球应用。沿着世界各地CoV-2 WWS倡议的成功，以及基于废水的流行病学领域的最新科学进展，使WWS成为一种重要的诊断工具，可以进一步发展，为加拿大和世界各地的健康带来更多益处。在这方面，渥太华研究小组调查了第一民族医疗队、安大略当地公共卫生单位、公共卫生安大略（PHO）和加拿大公共卫生署（PHAC）的合作者和同事，以确定WWS发展的相关疾病。公共卫生单位和机构优先鉴定流感病毒（Flu）、呼吸道合胞病毒（RSV）和猴痘病毒（MPXV）。因此，渥太华研究团队与安大略省环境、保护和公园部（MECP）、安大略省公共卫生部（PHO）、渥太华市、渥太华公共卫生部（OPH）和约克地区市（约克地区，包括约克地区公共卫生部）合作，提议开发新的、反应灵敏、准确、可靠和全面的流感病毒、RSV和MPXV WWS诊断工具。该研究将超越方法的发展，以量化废水中的疾病目标，并将解决WWS数据变化的关键问题。具体而言，该研究致力于推进我们目前对废水中疾病目标分区的了解，开发有关废水基础设施中这些疾病目标命运的新知识，并确定使用适当的生物标志物来规范数据，以最大限度地减少WWS数据集中观察到的变异性。这项研究将有助于改善加拿大的社区卫生，减轻该国的卫生不公平现象，并将为该国的大流行病防备战略提供必要的反应灵敏的诊断工具。

The pressure exerted by the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on public health resources resulted in the development and global application of severe acute respiratory syndrome-2 virus wastewater surveillance (CoV-2 WWS). The successes of CoV-2 WWS initiatives around the world along with a recent scientific advancement of the field of wastewater-based epidemiology positions WWS as an important diagnostic tool that can be further advanced for additional health benefits across Canada and the world. In this regard, the Ottawa team of researchers surveyed collaborators and colleagues at First Nation medical teams, local public health units in Ontario, Public Health Ontario (PHO), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to identify diseases of interest for the advancement of WWS. The public health units and agencies preferentially identified the influenza virus (Flu), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and monkeypox virus (MPXV). As such, the Ottawa research team in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP), Public Health Ontario (PHO), City of Ottawa, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) and The Regional Municipality of York (York Region, which includes York Region Public Health) propose to develop new, responsive, accurate, reliable and comprehensive WWS diagnostic tools for Flu, RSV and MPXV. The research will move beyond the development of methods to quantify disease targets in wastewaters and will address the critical issue of data variability in WWS. Specifically, the research endeavours to advance our current knowledge of disease target partitioning in wastewaters, develop new knowledge of the fate of these disease targets in wastewater infrastructure and identify the use of appropriate biomarkers to normalize the data in order to minimize variability observed in WWS data sets. The research will serve to improve community health in Canada, to mitigate health inequities in the country and will produce responsive diagnostic tools necessary for the country's pandemic preparedness strategies.