Wastewater-based epidemiological surveillance - Yearly report - 2024

This report presents the activities performed in 2024 within the framework of the national wastewater-based epidemiology surveillance project. The project is funded by the federal and regional (Agence pour une Vie de Qualité (AVIQ), Vivalis and Departement Zorg) health autorities. The activities described in this report are divided in three main categories: routine surveillances, research projects and other miscellaneous activities.
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an innovative One Health approach for the testing of various issues relevant to public health. Although WBE is well documented for the monitoring of illicit drugs and poliomyelitis, the interest in its utilisation to assess broader public health issues has recently exploded as countries assessed WBE for monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, researchers and public health institutes have been researching how WBE can be actionable for broader topics within the domains of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and biomarkers.