Pathogen biomarkers in wastewater, stool, and urine: an informal literature survey

To help inform decisions about which pathogens to target for expanded wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) testing, we set out to determine which human pathogens had previously been detected or quantified in wastewater, stool, or urine.

Key learnings from this literature review include:

• 94% of pathogens had some scientific study reporting that the pathogen had been detected in wastewater, stool, or urine.
• Gastrointestinal pathogens are the most studied in wastewater, but many other types of pathogens have been detected in wastewater, including respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
• Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and metagenomic sequencing are the most commonly-used methods for detecting pathogens in wastewater.