Words On Water #212: Kari Brisolara on the Growing Collaboration with the Public Health Sector

March 2, 2022

Kari Brisolara is Associate Professor of Environmental Health at Louisiana State University and Chair of the Disinfection and Public Health Committee for the Water Environment Federation. In this episode, Kari discusses the historic connection between water and public health and how the coronavirus pandemic raised awareness about the role of the water sector in public health. She talks about the increased collaboration between the water sector and public health sector, particularly to advance wastewater-based disease surveillance. Kari also explains the benefits to water organizations of closer relationships with health organizations and the role of wastewater epidemiology beyond COVID.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Words On Water #183: Amy Kirby and Dr. Andrew Sanderson on Expansion of Wastewater-Based Disease Surveillance

April 15, 2021

Amy Kirby is the National Wastewater Surveillance System Lead for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Dr. Andrew Sanderson is the Chief Medical Officer for the Water Environment Federation (WEF). In this episode they discuss how CDC has selected WEF to develop, manage, and provide training for a nationwide network of water utilities, public health agencies, and laboratories participating in wastewater-based disease surveillance. Andrew and Amy explain that wastewater-based disease surveillance has been used to study the presence and trends in coronavirus infections in communities and is increasingly viewed as a valuable tool during the current pandemic and for future public health research.

Episode #183
Hosted by Travis Loop

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Words On Water #138: Studying Coronavirus with Wastewater Epidemiology

April 27, 2020

This podcast introduces wastewater epidemiology and explains what information related to the detection of RNA of COVID-19 virus in wastewater does and does not tell us. Wastewater epidemiology has been used for decades to track the presence of infectious diseases such as polio in communities. It has also been used to aid in the response to the opioid epidemic. Now it has gained a role in guiding state and local public health responses to COVID-19 outbreaks. This episode is the audio from a webcast moderated by Dr. Kyle Bibby (University of Notre Dame) with several speakers including Dr. Mariana Matus (Biobot), Dr. Amy Kirby (CDC), and Dr. Jennifer Murphy (CDC).

Episode #138

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS