Flushed Intelligence- Detecting outbreaks using wastewater-based epidemiology 

• Stephen Brown, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Studies
• Sarah Jane Payne, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Queen’s University
• Geoffrey Hall, Associate Director Education and Outreach, Beaty Water Research Centre, Adjunct Professor, Department of Civil Engineering & School of Environmental Studies, Queen's University 

Since the COVID19 was identified in late 2019, it has spread worldwide, infecting over 96 million individuals and resulting in over 2 million deaths, with numbers continuing to grow. Although the respiratory route is the primary transmission pathway of concern, it has been detected in stool of infected individuals as well as in individuals where the illness has resolved, and the virus is no longer detectable in respiratory specimens. Accordingly, feces of infected patients may serve as a source of contamination or infection as well as a potential mechanism for community surveillance, including for asymptomatic carriers. Environmental surveillance in municipal sewage could act as an early warning system of outbreaks as well as identify high-risk communities providing vital monitoring and predictive tools for early intervention in future waves of the outbreak. 

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