Advancing One Health in Africa through continental early warning environmental surveillance

ABSTRACT Environmental surveillance is rapidly emerging as one of the most transformative tools for infectious disease detection, especially in Africa. In their minireview published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology , E. Darko, D. Akortia, G. Nkrumah, F. Opoku Agyapong, et al. (Appl Environ Microbiol 92:e01932-25, 2026, https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.01932-25 ) synthesize evidence from 90 studies across Africa and demonstrate both the promise and fragmentation of pathogen-focused environmental surveillance. Their findings reveal major inequities but also underscore a critical opportunity as relates to the development of integrated, multi-pathogen environmental surveillance systems capable of strengthening continent-wide early warning systems.