Toward smart diagnosis of pandemic infectious diseases using wastewater-based epidemiology

COVID-19 outbreak revealed fundamental weaknesses of current diagnostic systems, particularly in prediction and subsequently prevention of pandemic infectious diseases (PIDs). Among PIDs detection methods, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been demonstrated to be a favorable mean for estimation of community-wide health. Besides, by going beyond purely sensing usages of WBE, it can be efficiently exploited in Healthcare 4.0/5.0 for surveillance, monitoring, control, and above all prediction and prevention, thereby, resulting in smart sensing and management of potential outbreaks/epidemics/pandemics. Herein, an overview of WBE sensors for PIDs is presented. The philosophy behind the smart diagnosis of PIDs using WBE with the help of digital technologies is then discussed, as well as their characteristics to be met. Analytical techniques that are pushing the frontiers of smart sensing and have a high potential to be used in the smart diagnosis of PIDs via WBE are surveyed. In this context, we underscore key challenges ahead and provide recommendations for implementing and moving faster toward smart diagnostics.