Will the next pandemic be spotted in a hospital or under London's streets? - AOL

London’s next pandemic warning may come from sewage lines and hospitals, not just hospitals and labs. The UK has built an end-to-end wastewater monitoring system across 31 sites, testing for 12 priority pathogens. Over the next year, ministers want to expand environmental surveillance across sewers, hospitals and transport settings. A separate pandemic preparedness plan says the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will explore sampling aircraft wastewater to detect illnesses arriving in Britain. The government’s UK Biological Security Strategy, published in July, also aims to link different surveillance methods. UKHSA is spending £1.3 million testing whether wastewater can reveal genetic traces of pathogens including Mpox and West Nile virus.