# Pilot ED Wastewater Surveillance During the 2024-2025 Respiratory Virus Season

**Authors:** Zachary Renfro, Alessandro Zulli, Vivian Levy, Roma Nawy, Alicia Mercado, Sehee Jong, Jorge Luis Salinas, Heather Eastwood, Chad Below, Alexandria B. Boehm, Julie Parsonnet, Christopher L. Bennett

PMC · DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.55023 · 2026-01-22

## TL;DR

This study compares wastewater from emergency departments with clinical tests to track respiratory viruses in two US hospitals during the 2024-2025 season.

## Contribution

The study introduces ED wastewater surveillance as a novel method for tracking respiratory virus prevalence in real-time.

## Key findings

- ED wastewater showed similar trends to clinical testing for respiratory viruses.
- The method detected viral presence before clinical cases were reported.
- Results suggest wastewater surveillance could complement traditional testing.

## Abstract

This cross-sectional study compares emergency department (ED) wastewater surveillance for prevalence of respiratory viral pathogens with clinical testing trends at 2 urban US hospitals during the 2024-2025 respiratory virus season.

## Full-text entities

- **Genes:** N (nucleocapsid phosphoprotein) [NCBI Gene 43740575]
- **Diseases:** viral hepatitis (MESH:D014777), infection (MESH:D007239), gonorrhea (MESH:D006069), respiratory (MESH:D012131), Infectious disease (MESH:D003141)
- **Species:** Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (no rank) [taxon 2697049], Respiratory syncytial virus (no rank) [taxon 12814], Homo sapiens (human, species) [taxon 9606], Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (no rank) [taxon 11676], Bovine coronavirus (no rank) [taxon 11128]

## Figures

2 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12828624/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12828624