The World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox (mpox) a public health emergency of national concern on August 14, 2024.
The WHO saw an upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as well as in a growing number of African countries. This constituted a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR).
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has been monitoring the presence of mpox in wastewater samples across the U.S. utilizing the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS).
The NWSS program collects and displays wastewater data from communities across the U.S. The program has utilized 1,245 sites in the last two months and serves an estimated population of 130 million people.
From July 18, 2024, to August 14, 2024, the CDC recognized zero sites with consistent detection of mpox, one site with intermittent detection, 330 sites with no detection and 60 sites with no recent data.
Wastewater monitoring can provide early detection of increasing cases. This process can allow health care providers and hospital systems to better prepare for upcoming increases in visits and hospitalizations as the wastewater data can show changes in disease trends before trends are seen in clinical cases.
The NWSS program has national coverage and is implemented in all 50 states, 3 territories and 5 tribal organizations. From toilet flush to results only takes about 5 to seven days. Testing at a single treatment plant can provide community-level disease trends for the surrounding populations.
The monitoring can also be used to detect different variants. These detections can provide early warning signs that variants may be spreading in communities.
