Wastewater-Based Surveillance for Public Health: Knowledge-to-Action Series

(Year 1, 2023– 2024)

Project

Canadian Water Network (CWN) and the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID) collaborated to launch the Wastewater-based Surveillance (WBS) Program. In its inaugural year (April 2023 – March 2024), the program supported over 30 public health practitioners serving cities and Indigenous communities across Canada. Their focus was on effectively interpreting and communicating WBS data, as well as communicating the value of using WBS to track cases of COVID-19 and other contagious diseases at the community level. Six knowledge products — including an overview, three case examples, and two tools — were produced to capture key learnings and promising practices from the program’s first year.

The objectives of the Wastewater-Based Surveillance (WBS) for Public Health Knowledge-to-Action Series are to:

1. Capture what was learned by public health practitioners and their partners about interpreting and communicating WBS information.
2. Guide and support the use of WBS to protect and improve the health and well-being of people in health regions and communities across Canada.

Funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada and Indigenous Services Canada enabled the successful implementation of this critical initiative.

Outputs

 

1. Overview.
2. Case example from Ottawa Public Health.
3. Case example from BC Centre for Disease Control.
4. Case example from Nunavik Regional Board of Health & Social Services.
5. Resources and tools on health data governance and ethics.
6. Resources and tools on dashboards for communication and decision-making.