Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Biology

Committee Chair

Timothy Driscoll

Committee Member

Rita Rio

Committee Member

Jennifer Gallagher

Abstract

Influenza viruses (IV) affect populations globally, with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that IV are responsible for an estimated 3-5 million infections and 290,000 – 650,000 deaths annually1–3. More specifically, the 2019-2020 IV season is associated with an estimated 38 million illnesses and 22,000 deaths in the United States alone4. IV are rapidly spread between individuals through direct contact with infected individuals, contaminated surfaces, or aerosolized virus particles2. Traditional IV infection monitoring relies on clinical screening of patients presenting influenza-like symptoms, commonly through the use of multi-target panel tests such as the BioFire system1. Although clinical screening is useful for identifying infected individuals and can be used to assess community influenza outbreaks, this method lacks resolution of viral subtypes, regional IV activity, and is often a lagging indicator of community spread due to IV incubation times1,5,6. It is also expensive, requires access to healthcare, and relies on healthcare-seeking behavior by individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance has become an integral rapid screening tool for tracking community spread and identifying SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern1,5,6. This proposed research aims to further explore the application of wastewater surveillance to the detection and tracking of IV spread in student housing on the campus of West Virginia University (WVU; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA).

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