Four major airports across the U.S. will become sites of an expanded infectious disease surveillance effort from the CDC's Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance program, according to a Nov. 6 news release.
Testing as part of the program — which was initially launched to detect COVID-19 in passengers entering the U.S. — consists of three areas: wastewater sampling from planes, aircraft testing and voluntary nasal swabs of international travelers arriving to the U.S. via 135 planes — covering each World Health Organization region.
For COVID-19 testing, the program has proven to be "a nimble and scalable resource for public health officials in the United States–quickly adapting to a changing pandemic in real time and addressing gaps in global surveillance; especially, when testing and sequencing information are limited," according to the release.
Expanding it to test for flu, respiratory syncytial virus, COVID-19 and also 30 additional viruses and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria at four of the largest, busiest airports in the nation, the CDC hopes, will enable early detection and proactive response to incoming health threats.
"The TGS program, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, acted as an early warning system to detect new and rare variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and will do the same for other respiratory viruses going forward," Cindy Friedman, MD, chief of CDC's Travelers' Health Branch stated.
The pilot program will launch at Boston Logan International Airport, Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., San Francisco International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, CNN reported.