Advancing wastewater surveillance using pioneering triangulation approach
Abstract
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an internationally recognised cost-effective tool to monitor population exposure to consumption of substances and infectious diseases. However, the lack of suitable correction factors of biomarkers for accurate back-estimation limits its applicability. This project aims to systematically evaluate and refine the correction factor of a suite of important biomarkers using a novel triangulation approach with national scale data sets of sales/prescription and mass in wastewateracross Australia. This project expects to generate new knowledge to enable the full potential of WBE to accurately quantify the consumption of substances of interest, e.g. fentanyl, for public health and law enforcement purposes.
