The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has received a £3 million grant from the Integrated Security Fund to expand its wastewater pathogen surveillance program across England. The funding will support PRISM—a new system designed to detect emerging health threats by analyzing samples from hospital wastewater and high-traffic locations like transport hubs.
PRISM builds on a pilot program launched in April 2025, which tested new technologies capable of identifying dangerous viruses in wastewater. Early results demonstrated how environmental surveillance could improve early detection of outbreaks. The expanded program will now scale this approach nationally, integrating it with existing public health monitoring.
Unlike targeted systems like the UK’s polio wastewater surveillance, PRISM uses a ‘sample once, test many’ method. A single environmental sample can now support multiple purposes: tracking public health threats, monitoring biosecurity risks, and assessing antimicrobial resistance. This flexibility makes it more efficient than previous methods.
The program’s pathogen-agnostic design means it can spot known viruses, new variants, and previously unidentified pathogens, all from the same sample. While rare diseases like Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever and Ebola are not currently present in the UK, PRISM could help detect them early if they emerge. It will also improve monitoring of common pathogens like norovirus, which strain the NHS during winter.
UKHSA’s Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Robin May, called PRISM a “powerful early warning system” that strengthens the country’s readiness for future pandemics. The two-year project will extend surveillance to targeted hospital sites and high-footfall areas.
