National Wastewater Surveillance Programme

National Wastewater Surveillance Programme

The HSE National Wastewater Surveillance Programme (NWSP) is a partnership between the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), Uisce Éireann, UCD National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) and the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science at University College Dublin (UCD). The NWSP was initially established in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic as an additional tool to monitor COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 activity in the community. It involves weekly sampling of the influent of wastewater from 30 wastewater catchment areas across Ireland.

Wastewater testing for poliovirus is a well-established tool for poliovirus surveillance and informs outbreak response in several countries, with many countries now using wastewater surveillance systems established for SARS-CoV-2 monitoring to introduce it. In 2022 an alert was sounded after poliovirus was detected in wastewater samples across London and a clinical case of polio was identified in New York (1,2). These detections highlighted the need for ongoing efforts to strengthen poliovirus surveillance in Ireland, with wastewater surveillance for poliovirus testing commencing in Ireland in February 2023. Further detections of poliovirus in wastewater samples have since been reported in a number of European countries in 2024 and 2025 (3,4).

Wastewater surveillance for poliovirus was initially undertaken in the catchment area of the Ringsend wastewater treatment plant serving the greater Dublin area, which is the largest wastewater catchment area in Ireland. This testing was expanded in February 2025 to five catchment areas to cover almost 50% of the Irish population: Ringsend, Cork City, Galway, Limerick and Letterkenny. As circulating Vaccine Derived Poliovirus Type 2 (cVDPV2) is the most prevalent poliovirus globally, the NWSP initially focused on type 2 poliovirus (PV2). In October 2025, this testing was expanded to include type 1 and 3 polioviruses (PV1 and PV3).

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REFERENCES

1. Klapsa D., Wilton T., Zealand A., Bujaki E., Saxentoff E., Troman C., Shaw A.G., Tedcastle A., Majumdar M., Mate R., et al. Sustained detection of type 2 poliovirus in London sewage between February and July, 2022, by enhanced environmental surveillance. Lancet. 2022;400:1531–1538. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01804-9.
2. Link-Gelles R, Lutterloh E, Schnabel Ruppert P, et al. Public Health Response to a Case of Paralytic Poliomyelitis in an Unvaccinated Person and Detection of Poliovirus in Wastewater — New York, June–August 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal WklyRep 2022;71:1065-1068. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7133e2.
3. BöttcherSindy, KreibichJulian, WiltonThomas, SalibaVanessa, Blomqvist Soile, Al-HelloHaider, Savolainen-KopraCarita, WieczorekMagdalena, Gad Beata, KrzysztoszekArleta, PintóRosa M, Cabrerizo María, Bosch Albert, Saxentoff Eugene, Diedrich Sabine, Martin Javier. Detection of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirustype2(cVDPV2)inwastewatersamples:awake-upcall,Finland,Germany,Poland,Spain,theUnitedKingdom,2024. EuroSurveill. 2025;30(3):pii=2500037. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2025.30.3.2500037
4. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Detection of wild poliovirus in wastewater in Germany: risk and recommendations. Nov 13, 2025. Available at: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/detection-wild-poliovirus-wastewater-germany-risk-and-recommendations

Surveillance Reports

• 2026 Surveillance Reports
• 2025 Surveillance Reports
• 2024 Surveillance Reports
• 2023 Surveillance Reports
• 2022 Surveillance Reports 
• 2021 Surveillance Reports