Episode 73 - Theresa Enkirch & Maximilian Riess - Signals Below the Surface - Wastewater Surveillance
ECDC: On Air
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
5.0 • 3 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What can wastewater reveal about the spread of infectious diseases?
In this episode you’ll learn:
how wastewater surveillance works
what pathogens can be detected in sewage systems
how it complements traditional disease surveillance
how Europe is developing wastewater monitoring
-----
In this episode of ECDC: On Air, microbiologists Theresa Enkirch and Maximilian Riess explain how analysing wastewater can help scientists detect pathogens shed by populations and monitor trends in infections across communities.
The discussion explores how wastewater surveillance complements traditional disease monitoring, how it is being implemented across Europe, and how new technologies may expand its role in detecting future health threats.
➡ Learn more about wastewater surveillance here.
➡ ECDC Framework on wastewater-based surveillance.
Interested in ECDC in general? Visit our portal ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on social media for the latest news!
------
Topics: wastewater surveillance, infectious disease monitoring, environmental surveillance, epidemiology, public health.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | ECDC on air. |
| 0:05.8 | The podcast of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. |
| 0:09.4 | Keeping up to date with European epidemiology. |
| 0:14.9 | Hello and welcome to ECDC on air. |
| 0:17.8 | I'm your host Nicholas and today we're going to talk about how waste water can be used to monitor |
| 0:22.7 | infectious diseases. |
| 0:24.7 | I'm joined here in the studio by two experts from ECDC who will help us understand how this works, |
| 0:31.0 | how this method has developed and how it can make a difference for Europe's health preparedness. |
| 0:44.3 | Here in the studio we have two experts from ECDC. We have Teresa, we have Max. |
| 0:47.3 | You're both microbiologists. |
| 0:50.3 | So I want to dive in a little bit and look a little bit more closer on the topic. |
| 0:54.9 | But before we do that, it would be interesting just to hear how did you get into this field from the start? |
| 1:00.7 | Was there any like particular moment outbreak or any research question that made you interested? |
| 1:06.3 | I think it all started a little bit with the pandemic. |
| 1:08.4 | I mean, we are both working a lot with Sask-CoF-2 during the pandemic as everyone else as well. |
| 1:14.6 | And wastewater became really a big thing in that time. |
| 1:19.6 | It was used to monitor the variants and infections and the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and a lot of investments were made at that time |
| 1:28.7 | into wastewater surveillance. |
| 1:30.9 | And I think this is how it started a little bit. |
| 1:33.9 | Would you agree, Max? |
| 1:35.2 | Yeah, absolutely. |
| 1:36.2 | So wastewater is not a new tool. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.