Rethinking public health in the context of wastewater-based epidemiology – Lessons learned from comparing post-pandemic tools and routine pathogen surveillance results in a small town

This project evaluated the integration of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) into public health surveillance in a small town in northern Germany. Over six weeks, composite wastewater samples were analyzed using qPCR and metagenomic sequencing to detect pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes. The findings were compared with routine clinical reports in close collaboration with local health authorities. The study demonstrated that WBE can identify pathogens earlier and more broadly than traditional systems, providing timely, population-level insights that support more informed and proactive public health responses.