Knowledge to Action Series Cost Effectiveness Use Case: The Cost-Benefits of Wastewater Surveillance in Urban Shelters 

Publication Summary

People experiencing housing insecurity and living in shelters face heightened risks of respiratory viral infections due to overcrowded conditions, shared hygiene spaces, poor ventilation, and limited access to healthcare. Wastewater-Based Surveillance (WBS) offers a non-invasive, population-level method of detecting viral pathogens without relying on individual testing or health-seeking behaviors, making it particularly valuable in shelter settings. The use case on the cost-benefits of wastewater surveillance in urban shelters highlights the cost and benefits associated with wastewater surveillance captured by the literature, and three shelter sites in Ontario. The facility-based WBS program in three shelters in Toronto ran from 2021 to 2024 with the support of Ontario’s Wastewater Surveillance Initiative and from the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force. the WBS program in Toronto shelters was to provide real-time data on the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B, RSV and Monkeypox virus in the three shelters.