Public Health Benefits and Ethical Aspects in the Collection and Open Sharing of Wastewater-Based Epidemic Data on COVID-19
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-027Keywords:
Open data platform, wastewater-based epidemiology, SARS-CoV-2, stigma, public commitment, technical limitationsAbstract
Collection and open sharing of wastewater-based epidemic data potentially provide immense public health benefits during outbreak of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. By early detection and localization of unidentified infections, wastewater surveillance is expected to enable early and targeted containment of the local outbreak. Wastewater surveillance renders potentially high public health benefits when a small catchment is targeted; however, it possibly leads to stigmatization and discrimination against the targeted group. Therefore, public commitment is crucial for the collection and open sharing of wastewater-based epidemic data. With respect to the sharing of wastewater-based epidemic data, technical limitations and uncertainty of collected data also should be simultaneously shared on the basis of scientific communication. Useful application of wastewater-based epidemic data is to complement clinical epidemic data, which is possibly biased and overlooks unidentified infections. To acquire public commitment toward the collection and open sharing of wastewater-based epidemic data, stakeholders need to reach a consensus on possible options of restrictive measures taken with respect to the collected data as well as appropriate handling of the collected data to prevent stigmatization and discrimination.
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