The University of Bath has inaugurated the UK’s first water-based public health surveillance center, set to revolutionize disease detection and community health monitoring through cutting-edge wastewater analysis.
The University of Bath has unveiled the UK’s first early-warning public health surveillance system that leverages the detection of tiny traces of chemicals and biological markers found in water. The Centre of Excellence in Water-Based Early-Warning Systems for Health Protection (CWBE) aims to provide a comprehensive picture of community health while offering vital early alerts for disease outbreaks.
The CWBE is spearheaded by Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, a professor in the Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change at the University of Bath, in collaboration with partners such as Wessex Water, the UK Health Security Agency and several government departments.
“We saw during the Covid-19 pandemic how useful it was to get data on numbers infected and their location, but it took days to get data back from PCR tests and was very expensive,” Kasprzyk-Hordern, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, said in a news release. “Since whole communities contribute to wastewater, monitoring it is several orders of magnitude cheaper and faster than clinical screening.”
CWBE’s research will involve the collection and analysis of wastewater samples from four designated “living labs” situated in the urban catchment areas of Bath and Bristol, along with the rural regions of Paulton and Radstock in Somerset. These samples will be examined for hundreds of trace chemicals and pathogen markers like virus and bacterial RNA/DNA, serving as an alert system for infectious disease outbreaks.
Beyond detecting initial signs of disease, this approach will help track chemical indicators of chronic diseases, stress, medication use and other health factors. It also offers a snapshot of community health and environmental quality, a practice known as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE).
Matthew Wade, senior environmental science advisor at the UK Health Security Agency and visiting fellow at the University of Bath, emphasized the project’s national importance.
“The UKHSA has been working closely with Barbara’s team at the University of Bath for several years to develop a national wastewater monitoring system for infectious diseases and collecting public health data,” he said in the news release. “We’re delighted to continue to be part of this important project and very excited to achieve this milestone of launching the UK’s first pilot wastewater monitoring centre.”
Initial data collection will establish a one-year baseline, after which researchers will introduce and test interventions aimed at enhancing public health. If successful, the framework established at Bath could be expanded nationwide.
“By using wastewater-based epidemiology we are enabling public health experts to monitor health and environmental risks quickly and efficiently,” Kasprzyk-Hordern added.
The CWBE also has ambitious plans to identify emerging synthetic drug use in communities and study the effects of diet and lifestyle choices on chronic health conditions.
Ruth Barden, director of environmental solutions at Wessex Water and visiting fellow at the University of Bath, shared her enthusiasm.
“Wessex Water is excited to be taking our longstanding partnership with the University of Bath to the next level with this new centre,” said Barden. “CWBE is taking an innovative ‘One Health’ approach that will help monitor the health of the environment as well as the community, and we are proud to be part of this important project.”
Source: University of Bath