Abstract
Context: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater influent monitoring for tracking disease burden in sewered communities was not performed in Ohio, and this field was only on the periphery of the state academic research community. Program: Because of the urgency of the pandemic and extensive state-level support for this new technology to detect levels of community infection to aid in public health response, the Ohio Water Resources Center established relationships and support of various stakeholders. This enabled Ohio to develop a statewide wastewater SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) monitoring network in 2 months starting in July 2020. Implementation: The current Ohio CoronavirusWastewater Monitoring Network (OCWMN) monitors more than 70 unique locations twice per week, and publicly available data are updated weekly on the public dashboard. Evaluation: This article describes the process and decisions that were made during network initiation, the network progression, and data applications, which can inform ongoing and future pandemic response and wastewater monitoring. Discussion: Overall, the OCWMN established wastewater monitoring infrastructure and provided a useful tool for public health professionals responding to the pandemic.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 845-853 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Journal of Public Health Management and Practice |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
Funding
The authors thank reviewers for taking the necessary time and effort to review the manuscript. The authors sincerely appreciate all their valuable comments and suggestions, which helped them in improving the quality of the manuscript. A number of people made significant contribution to Ohio's wastewater monitoring, thereby to this report, including Rebecca Fugitt, Gene Phillips, Jill Garratt, Sarah Lauterbach, and Rachel Baker at the Ohio Department of Health and the Innovate Ohio Platform team. Special thanks to other collaborators: Brian Hall and Tiffani Kavalec at Ohio EPA and Amy Kirby, Wiley Jennings, and Zachary Marsch at CDC, and all the Ohio's utility participants. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or the policies of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Any mention of trade names, manufacturers, or products does not imply an endorsement by the US government or the US Environmental Protection Agency. This work was supported by the US Department of Treasury through Ohio EPA project no. OSU-FDCARES20, and by the CDC grant through Ohio Department of Health, award no. 6 NU50CK000543-02-11. James Herrin and Dr Anda Quintero worked for LuminUltra, company performing commercial wastewater monitoring; Dr Rachel Spurbeck and Ms Angela Minard-Smith work for Battelle Memorial Institute, which is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company. This work was supported by the US Department of Treasury through Ohio EPA project no. OSU-FDCARES20, and by the CDC grant through Ohio Department of Health, award no. 6 NU50CK000543-02-11. James Herrin and Dr Anda Quintero worked for LuminUltra, company performing commercial wastewater monitoring; Dr Rachel Spurbeck and Ms Angela Minard-Smith work for Battelle Memorial Institute, which is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | |
| Battelle | |
| U.S. Department of the Treasury | OSU-FDCARES20 |
| U.S. Department of the Treasury | |
| Ohio Department of Health | 6 NU50CK000543-02-11 |
| Ohio Department of Health |
Keywords
- COVID-19 variants
- early warning
- public health response
- wastewater surveillance
- wastewater-based epidemiology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health Policy
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
