--- description: Wastewater surveillance uses local sewer systems to measure the health of the population and can be useful to detect infectious diseases. title: Human Waste Could Help Fight Infectious Disease Outbreaks image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c0164c557dc445c/698a35c2db2987eaa526837b/GettyImages-1239464014-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Disease](/tag/disease/) ## Disease Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Human Waste Could Help the Fight Against Future Infectious Disease Outbreaks  by [Andrew Johnson](/author/andrew-johnson/)  ## Andrew Johnson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 23, 2022 6:19 PM CUT  24 March 2022, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rostock: Holger Stählke, plant engineer, shows a collection container at Nordwasser during the automatic sampling of wastewater for the samples that will be tested for corona viruses, among other things. After Nordwasser was awarded the contract for the Germany-wide project "Systematic monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater" in February 2022, regular sampling is now beginning. It is hoped that the test results will enable trends in the incidence of infection to be identified at an early stage. Photo: Bernd Wüstneck/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa (Photo by Bernd Wüstneck/picture alliance via Getty Images) 24 March 2022, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rostock: Holger Stählke, plant engineer, shows a collection container at Nordwasser during the automatic sampling of wastewater for the samples that will be tested for corona viruses, among other things. After Nordwasser was awarded the contract for the Germany-wide project "Systematic monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater" in February 2022, regular sampling is now beginning. It is hoped that the test results will enable trends in the incidence of infection to be identified at an early stage. Photo: Bernd Wüstneck/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa (Photo by Bernd Wüstneck/picture alliance via Getty Images)Bernd Wüstneck/ Getty  by [Andrew Johnson](/author/andrew-johnson/)  ## Andrew Johnson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 23, 2022 6:19 PM CUT ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6216135/human-waste-could-help-the-fight-against-future-infectious-disease-outbreaks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6216135/human-waste-could-help-the-fight-against-future-infectious-disease-outbreaks/"},"headline":"Human Waste Could Help the Fight Against Future Infectious Disease Outbreaks","datePublished":"2022-09-23T18:19:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:48:21.943Z","description":"Wastewater surveillance uses local sewer systems to measure the health of the population and can be useful to detect infectious diseases.","url":"https://time.com/6216135/human-waste-could-help-the-fight-against-future-infectious-disease-outbreaks/","keywords":["Disease","COVID-19"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c0164c557dc445c/698a35c2db2987eaa526837b/GettyImages-1239464014-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrew Johnson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/andrew-johnson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c0164c557dc445c/698a35c2db2987eaa526837b/GettyImages-1239464014-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Coronavirus - Pilot project for corona detection in wastewater","caption":"Coronavirus - Pilot project for corona detection in wastewater","creditText":"Bernd Wüstneck/ Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/disease/","name":"Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6216135/human-waste-could-help-the-fight-against-future-infectious-disease-outbreaks/","name":"Human Waste Could Help the Fight Against Future Infectious Disease Outbreaks"}}]}] ```