Ethical Analysis for Infectious Disease Wastewater Surveillance Training Workshop Opportunity
Space is limited. Apply by September 19, 2025!
August 27, 2025
Infectious disease wastewater surveillance, which measures pathogen levels in wastewater, is vital to evaluating community-level health trends. Like many public health efforts, it also often involves ethical considerations. To provide state health departments and their partners with tools to understand and address ethical issues in wastewater surveillance, ASTHO is offering 2-day, in-person workshops to be hosted in your state!
Background
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is seeking up to 4 (four) state health agencies to participate in workshops to build an understanding of the process for ethical analysis and foster a shared awareness of key ethical issues relevant to wastewater surveillance.
ASTHO is excited to offer this 2-day, in-person workshop for state health agencies to convene their partners and identify and address ethical considerations for infectious disease wastewater surveillance. Workshop participants will learn from experts, analyze case studies, and discuss issues relevant to their state.
ASTHO staff will:
- Travel to your state.
- Manage all content and facilitation.
- Communicate logistics to attendees and manage the meeting registration process.
- Pay venue costs and manage logistics, upon request (Sites can choose to use a venue they already have access to or may request ASTHO support identifying and contracting with a venue). Please note that, due to grant requirements, ASTHO is unable to cover the cost of food.
Sites that are selected will:
- Identify and invite partners to participate in the workshop, ensuring that relevant partners are included (e.g., utilities, academic partners, local health departments, community representatives, etc.).
- Communicate and coordinate with ASTHO to support the planning process.
- Participate in ASTHO communications on a volunteer basis (e.g., participate in an interview on ASTHO daily podcast or blog) to highlight lessons learned for other ASTHO members. (A time commitment of about 1-3 hours maximum.)
Space is limited. Applications will be accepted through September 19, 2025, and sites will be notified by September 26, 2025. Whether your agency is considering conducting infectious disease wastewater surveillance but hasn’t started yet or has years of experience conducting infectious disease wastewater surveillance— all states are welcome and encouraged to apply! Ethical challenges can arise at all stages of program implementation.