Your viruses fly with you, and scientists could use them to spot the next pandemic

AI Summary

A US-UK pilot study finds that testing wastewaters from airplanes can detect circulating viruses weeks earlier than traditional surveillance methods. This approach could become a vital early-warning tool to spot emerging pandemics worldwide.

Testing aeroplane wastewater can detect circulating pathogens weeks earlier than traditional global pathogen surveillance allows, offering a potential early-warning tool for global outbreak preparedness, a US–UK pilot study found.