Developing a robust disease surveillance platform to detect emerging viruses in the Windsor-Essex Region

Challenges that emerged in the Windsor-Essex region during the COVID-19 pandemic were inequities in surveillance, including (a) the deployment of rapid screening and detection of COVID-19 and its variants, and (b) open access to evidence-based and user-friendly educational resources to engage the public. To meet these challenges, our research team designed and deployed a robust, and integrative surveillance platform, which included wastewater surveillance and individual-level saliva-screening to prevent outbreaks on our university campus. Our platform was co-designed with perspectives from our campus community and modified based on participant-led satisfaction and program evaluation data. Our goal is to adapt our surveillance detection platform to the needs of vulnerable communities in our region that are most susceptible to viral outbreaks, including cross-border healthcare workers (CBHWs) through our various community partnerships. First, we conducted two uptake surveys to capture local CBHWs interest in screening and prevention (Summer, 2023, & Fall, 2024 Ns=74 and 44 respectively). Across both survey administrations, approximately 61% were willing to participate in saliva testing to monitor the spread future viruses; however, concern regarding future public health emergencies did decline over time. Motivations for continued testing were having acute symptoms, protecting family, friends, and co-workers, and ease of use, accessibility and flexibility of the testing site. Participants also preferred timely and secure communication of results through email along with local community trends via a dashboard. This integrative data will continue to inform the deployment and evaluation of a sample dropbox site located at UWindsor for the broader community.