The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched new guidance and pathogen-specific summaries for Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance (WES).
WES is disease surveillance using samples from sewage, or other environmental waters impacted by human wastewater. WES has potential to provide information alongside other forms of disease surveillance to fill gaps in other surveillance data and inform the public health response. WES has been successfully used for many years in the polio eradication programme and more recently in the COVID-19 pandemic response.
WHO’s latest resources include downloadable prioritization guidance for implementing WES effectively and six pathogen summary sheets covering cholera, influenza, monkeypox, polio, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), and typhoid and paratyphoid.
WHO is inviting feedback on these documents throughout 2025. Users can access the publications and share their insights via the WES Feedback Form on the WHO website here.
Prioritization process for selecting targets for WES implementation. Credit: WHO
