On May 8, 2024, HWEA hosted a virtual quarterly meeting on Zoom. 

We welcomed our speaker, Jennifer Sabater, a manager in the Water Environment Federation’s Wastewater Surveillance Program. Jennifer develops training materials, workshops, videos, webpages, and other materials related to the use of wastewater testing to inform public health action. Previously, she conducted research on water quality and antibiotic-resistant bacteria and collaborated on public education projects with government agencies. Jennifer holds a master’s degree in biology and is certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology as a medical laboratory scientist in microbiology. 

Jennifer’s presentation topic was on Wastewater-based epidemiology and included an update on the National Wastewater Surveillance System. The presentation focused on public health surveillance and wastewater samples that can be collected to help determine the general health of a population. Jennifer explained that when a person is sick or infected, that person sheds virus in their feces. Wastewater samples are collected at a wastewater treatment plant and the information translated into data that can show the presence of different viruses currently affecting the population. This data collection method can have certain limitations such as data variability due to sample quality, sample time and presence of contaminants. Despite its limitations, Jennifer mentioned that this method can be a very cost-effective way to collect health data from a population and can help us detect outbreaks before clinical cases arise.

HWEA thanks Jennifer for the interesting topic and thank you to all the attendees for participating in the May virtual meeting! If you would like to view the Zoom meeting recording, please visit the HWEA Zoom Meeting link: https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/l5Y31GMtaHZ0Dprd-IMtEcYwcnrqlTF6TauXXO76PCkcdHRI9B1ldfb57gVywDrO.PySEv4Zs5pWvQa9X (Passcode: Hvg98Q=Y).