Wastewater surveillance: UKHSA expands programme to detect major health threats

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is expanding wastewater and environmental surveillance to detect dangerous pathogens that pose significant public health threats. The new tool called PRISM (Pathogen Risk Intelligence through Surveillance and Modelling) can detect multiple known and unknown threats from a single sample using sophisticated detection technologies. Unlike existing UK wastewater surveillance schemes that target only specific diseases such as polio, PRISM enables detection of a broader spectrum of pathogens. The program is being expanded to new locations including hospitals, transport hubs, and other high-footfall areas. Using advanced sequencing and molecular genomics, the technology can potentially identify viruses such as Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Ebola, Marburg virus disease, and Lassa fever, as well as track seasonal viruses like norovirus.