Abstract
The World Health Organisation recommends the use of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for the monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 at the population-level. However, uptake of WBE approaches in low-to-middle income countries have been low. In this presentation we will provide more information on a WBE study that was carried out at eight wastewater treatment works in Ekurhuleni municipality from June 2020 to May 2023. We will discuss the successes of the project, and how the study resulted in a valuable WBE dataset. The dataset and how it needs to be interpreted will also be discussed. We will talk about the challenges and hurdles that we encountered and how this may help to explain the slow uptake of WBE in low-income countries. Finally, we will provide information about our future goals and planned activities and how that will bring this study to final fruition.
