Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine discovered that monitoring public wastewater can detect over 450 disease-causing viruses, making it a powerful early-warning system for outbreaks. Their study won the 2024 STAT Madness popular vote. The team’s goal is to test for over 3,000 pathogens simultaneously, including all known human viruses, using sewage as a “smoke alarm” for potential health crises. Leveraging the fact that viruses shed into urine and feces, the team works with water treatment plants to sample wastewater for viral genomes. The hope is to identify outbreaks early and cheaply by continuously monitoring sewage.
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Baylor research on wastewater monitoring wins STAT Madness
