Marin County Public Health's Wastewater Surveillance program allows us to monitor infectious diseases in our community through wastewater surveillance. This wastewater (sewage) data serves as a vital tool in protecting the public's health.
Wastewater and Public Health
Early Warning System:
Wastewater surveillance is our frontline defense, offering early indications of disease spread within communities. The information gathered is an invaluable, unbiased addition to traditional health data sources like clinical tests, hospitalizations, and 911 calls.
Unveiling Community Health Risks:
Wastewater provides anonymous insights into health risks, playing a crucial role in our comprehensive public health strategy. It allows us to act swiftly with communities to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Understanding Transmission among People without Symptoms:
Even in the absence of symptoms, individuals infected with a virus can shed the compound in their feces. Wastewater surveillance detects these compounds, providing critical information about the presence of viruses within our communities to allow Public Health important lead time to respond.
Interactive Charts: Disease Breakdown
- Categorized Overview: Explore charts organized by disease type for a quick understanding - Respiratory, Gastrointestinal, and Other Infectious Diseases.
- Visual Insight: In line graphs, a higher line indicates increased virus presence, offering a visual gauge of transmission intensity.
- Rare Disease Detection: For rarer diseases like mpox, charts indicate detection presence or absence, streamlining information for easy comprehension.
Discover and interpret disease trends swiftly with our user-friendly charts.
Respiratory Viruses
These interactive charts show the amount of five important respiratory viruses in Marin County: Influenza A, RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), Human Metapneumovirus, and Enterovirus. Levels can be viewed for each wastewater collection site. Specific pages with additional clinical data for Marin County are available for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV.
These interactive charts show the amount of two important gastrointestinal illnesses in Marin County: Norovirus and Rotavirus. Levels can be viewed for each wastewater collection site.
Other Infectious Diseases
The interactive charts below show the local wastewater sampling results for three less common diseases of concern. Charts display Hepatitis A levels and the presence or absence of Candida auris (C. Auris) and mpox (formerly known as Monkeypox). Hepatitis A is a virus that can cause serious liver diseases and is usually acquired through ingesting contaminated foods or contact with material soiled by an infected person. C. auris is a yeast that can cause uncommon but serious illness, and is especially a concern in congregate settings like skilled nursing facilities. Mpox is a virus that causes rare illness, usually through intimate (skin-to-skin) contact with someone with mpox while they are symptomatic. Mpox is vaccine preventable. More information about mpox and resources in Marin can be found here. Measles is a highly contagious viral disease caused by the measles virus, spread through respiratory droplets from coughing or sneezing. It can lead to serious complications such as pneumonia or encephalitis, especially in unvaccinated individuals. West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause illness ranging from mild flu-like symptoms to severe neurological disease such as meningitis or encephalitis. It is primarily transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, with most human infections occurring during warmer months when mosquito activity is highest. Any detection in wastewater of Hepatitis A, C.auris, mpox, measles, or WNV indicates the likely presence of at least one person with infection in the community, which can prompt public health response.
