Epidemiological Insights and Methodologies in Wastewater Surveillance: Focusing on Low-Resource Communities and Confined Populations

Wastewater surveillance is a public health tool that addresses community health needs of populations within centralized communities. While prior work evaluating wastewater surveillance for low-resource communities and confined populations is sporadic, there is a critical need to advance and centralize this work for the scientific community. This framework will enable researchers to publish their findings and promote this area of wastewater surveillance research. The aim is of special issue is to coalescence the research and advance the science of wastewater surveillance for these often overlooked communities.



The core issue addressed by this research is the scarcity of studies focused on wastewater surveillance within confined populations and low-resource communities. Currently, there is no centralized resource compiling information on the challenges, opportunities, ethical considerations, and existing knowledge in this field. Creating such a repository would greatly benefit researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to understand and advance wastewater surveillance in these settings.

The type of manuscripts of interest are as follows:
1. Papers related to low-resource communities. This would include studies that take place within specific rural/isolated communities, indigenous communities, and immigrant communities.
2. Papers related to confined populations. This would include nursing homes, prisons, and armed forces to name a few.
3. We would welcome original research, technical communications, review, and commentary.