The project for global surveillance of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance from sewage has begun, with more than 50% of the countries submitting samples already
With support from COMPARE and the World Health Organization, a global sewage surveillance project has been started.
More than 70 countries have accepted the proposal to partner in this surveillance project.
As of 26 February 2016, 41 countries have supplied samples to the National Food Institute, DTU, for analysis, with new samples coming every day.
Metagenomic sequencing of human sewage and quantification of antimicrobial resistance genes and residues combined with epidemiological data is a possible way to determine the occurrence and burden of resistance in defined healthy human populations.
Recent developments in high‐throughput sequencing offer the ability to rapidly identify nucleic acids from various organisms in clinical and environmental samples. Sewage systems are recognized as an important source of human pathogens, especially in crowded settings with poor infrastructure.
The project will serve as proof‐of‐concept for applying metagenomic approaches, which could initiate a global surveillance of human infectious diseases including antimicrobial resistance from sewage collected in major cities around the world to detect, control, prevent and predict human infectious diseases.
Along with The National Food Institute, DTU (WHO Collaborating Centre and European Union Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance in Foodborne Pathogens), several other partners from COMPARE are involved in this joint study with WHO, including Erasmus MC, The Netherlands, and National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, RIVM (WHO Collaborating Centre for Risk Assessment of Pathogens in Water and Food).