CDC Wastewater Surveillance: A Vital Public Health Tool Facing Unjustified Federal Cuts

As America strives to protect its citizens from contagious diseases, recent research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underscores a critical but underappreciated tool in our public health arsenal—wastewater disease surveillance. This method has proven its ability to spot outbreaks of highly infectious illnesses like measles weeks or even months before cases show up in clinical settings.In Colorado, officials detected evidence of measles through sewer water analysis about a week before doctors confirmed individual cases. In Oregon, this warning system could have alerted health authorities over two months in advance, providing invaluable time to mobilize resources and...