Duke-NUS to build wastewater disease early warning system with $2.3m grant

It is a cost-effective approach to monitoring disease at the community level.

Duke-NUS Medical School has secured a US$2.3m (€2m) grant to develop a population-level early warning system for detecting infectious diseases through wastewater and environmental surveillance.

According to the hospital, wastewater surveillance has emerged as a promising and cost-effective approach to monitoring disease at the community level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Combined with advances in multi-pathogen genomic sequencing, including targeted next-generation sequencing, it can provide a timely snapshot of infectious threats circulating in a population.

The three-year project will focus on network collaboration, capacity building, capability development, and strategic evidence and integration.

It will be led by the Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness and will support countries in the region, particularly low- and middle-income countries.