WES-Luxembourg day

Wastewater and Environment Surveillance

Since the Covid-19 health crisis, wastewater surveillance has gained in importance and has become a key public health tool in many European countries, including Luxembourg. Thanks to its many advantages, such as rapid data collection through non-invasive and non-discriminatory sampling, it has become indispensable for detecting illicit drugs, monitoring the spread of pathogens and assessing the general health of urban populations.

The « WES-Luxembourg day » conference will highlight the importance and development of wastewater surveillance at the national level. The various activities in Luxembourg in this field will be presented, as well as the past, present and future impact of this monitoring on the country's public health.

During this conference, the innovative online training courses developed as part of a European Erasmus+ project will be presented. These web-based courses on wastewater surveillance practices are aimed at a wide range of actors in this multidisciplinary field (sanitation professionals, epidemiologists, scientists, media, etc.). Live experience of these online training courses will be available on-site with dedicated workstations.

The day will also be an opportunity to discover the MicrObs dashboard, the first platform dedicated to wastewater surveillance in Luxembourg. This dashboard will display wastewater epidemiology data from major wastewater treatment plants in Luxembourg, providing a regular overview of the spread of public health relevant pathogenic viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2 or influenza viruses in the population.

Finally, Luxembourg's participation in the development of wastewater surveillance and its support for the promotion of this innovative approach in Europe and globally will be highlighted.

Programme

08:30 – 09:00	Registration
09:00 – 09:30	Opening event Introduction of the day Dr. Anne Vergison, MD, PhD, MPH, Division de l’inspection sanitaire and Dr. Henry-Michel Cauchie, PhD, LIST
09:30 – 10:10	Session 1. Presentations of ongoing major wastewater surveillance activities in Luxembourg From data to action: Luxembourg's path to a permanent wastewater surveillance network - Dr. Leslie Ogorzaly, PhD, LIST Drug consumption in Luxembourg estimated through wastewater analysis - Dr Sc. Serge Schneider, LNS
10:10 – 10:30	Coffee Break
10:30 – 11:00	Discover MicrObs, a new communication tool to share wastewater surveillance data in Luxembourg - Dr. Blandine Fauvel, PhD, LIST Luxembourg's participation in shaping wastewater surveillance in Europe and beyond through the EU-WISH Project - Dr. Henry-Michel Cauchie, PhD, LIST
11:00 – 12:30	Session 2. Capacity building on wastewater surveillance in Luxembourg Presentation of the Erasmus+ OneHealthWatch project, an innovative platform for online training in wastewater surveillance Live experience of online training course Slido session - Feedback
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch and Networking