Wastewater surveillance is a community-level approach to sampling and testing raw wastewater for pathogens that enter sewer systems through human waste. Wastewater samples are taken before wastewater is treated. Samples are then processed to test for diseases that may be circulating in a community. Test results are analyzed to detect trends and inform public health action.

Benefits of wastewater sampling include: 

• A community-level perspective on which diseases are circulating locally;
• An early warning that levels of infections are increasing or decreasing in a community;
• Data for communities where access to testing isn’t readily available.