Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) Research, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), through analysing relevant biomarkers in wastewater, can provide near-real-time information on the level of consumption or exposure to a range of chemicals and pathogens experienced by the population living within target catchment boundaries. This approach has been developed and applied for more than a decade and started with the monitoring of illicit drug use around the world. WBE has been adopted by authorities and policy makers to find evidence and formulate drug control strategies.

In recent years, particularly since 2020, the use of WBE has expanded into both risk assessments of the consumption, use, exposure, or release of chemicals and early warnings about infectious disease spread and antibiotic resistance at the community level. There have been thousands of WBE studies on COVID-19 monitoring published in the last two years. Despite this success, many challenges still prevent WBE from reaching its full potential as a complementary monitoring tool for epidemiological studies of human health. This Special Issue welcomes both original research papers and systematic reviews on various aspects of WBE, from the application of this approach in new areas with special demographics to exploratory studies advancing the science of this field. We encourage the submission of interdisciplinary work and collaborative research that identify new biomarkers for WBE and triangulate WBE data with other data sources. We also encourage the submission of manuscripts that focus on COVID-19 and other pathogens.

Dr. Peng Du
Dr. Phong Thai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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