Assessing the Concurrence of Pathogen Detection in the National Wastewater Surveillance System at Wastewater Testing Sites with Multiple Testing Sources – United States, 2025
- Presentation Day/Time: Friday, April 24, 9:25 AM
- Presenter: Rajesh Yadav, MBBS, MScPH, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Division of Infectious Disease Readiness and Innovation
The Issue
- Wastewater surveillance is an emerging public health tool with ongoing development of standardized sampling, processing, and testing methods. Expansion of CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) has improved surveillance but might introduce different signals because of methodological variations.
What We Did
- We assessed overlap and qualitative laboratory disagreement in pathogen detection across testing sources in 2025. Overlapping sites were defined as those where more than one source reported results within a seven-day window, and qualitative laboratory disagreement was defined as the presence of both positive and negative detections across sources within the same overlapping window.
What We Found
- Multi-source site overlap during 2025 was limited. Qualitative laboratory disagreement in detection was more common for influenza and RSV than for SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens.
What This Means
- Additional research should assess the effects of methodological differences on disagreement to guide standardization.
