The UK's first pilot wastewater monitoring centre could help avoid future pandemics, a university has said.
The public health surveillance system, based on detecting traces of chemicals and biological markers found in water, has been launched at the University of Bath.
Researchers at the £13m Centre of Excellence Water-Based Early-Warning Systems for Health Protection (CWBE) will track virus and bacterial DNA in wastewater samples, which can act as an early-warning system for outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Weekly samples from four "living labs" in areas of Bath and Bristol, and in rural Paulton and Radstock, Somerset, will be monitored.
Once established in Bath, the team hope the system will be rolled out nationwide.
The data could be used to alert public health teams of new outbreaks and help hospitals prepare for treating patients.
