The effort expands on a previous initiative in Northern California that provided the only reported detections of monkeypox genetic material in sewage.
Researchers at Stanford University and Emory University have launched a nationwide initiative to monitor monkeypox, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases in communities by measuring viral genetic material in wastewater. The effort will also provide health officials and the public with free, high-quality data, which is critical to informing public health decision making. The initiative is already producing data, including the first detections of monkeypox DNA in wastewater in the United States.
This new, Stanford-led effort, called WastewaterSCAN, significantly expands access to the analytical approach and public reporting developed by the scientists and 11 Northern California communities through the Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network (SCAN) that launched in November 2020. Beginning with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, SCAN has provided frequent information that is comparable over time and from place to place about the community levels of COVID-19, its variants, monkeypox, influenza A, and RSV to help shape public health responses to those infections.
