Scientific Programme
DAY 1 – Tuesday, 14th April, 2026
DAY 2 – Wednesday, 15th April, 2026
DAY 3 – Thursday, 16th April, 2026
DAY 1 – Tuesday, 14th April, 2026
| Time | Activity | Speaker/Person Responsible | Topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30-9:00 | Arrival and Registration | Organising Committee | |
| 9:00-9:05 | Opening Prayer | ||
| 9:05-9:10 | Introduction of Guests | MC | |
| 9:10-9:30 | Welcome Address and Fraternal Messages | Planning Committee Chair, Conference Chairman and Representatives of Institutions (GF, WHO, TBD) | |
| 9:30-9:45 | Keynote Address | Kate Medlicott, WHO | Integrating WES into the global public health architecture |
| 9:45-10:00 | Special Guest Speaker | Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, DG, GHS | |
| Cultural Display | Kwan Pa Band | ||
| 10:00-11:30 | Plenary: Epidemiological insights from WES | Isobel Blake (Chair) | |
| Andrew Nsawotebba | Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance Enables Early Detection and Monitoring of Epidemic-Prone Pathogens and Variants, Triggering Public Health Interventions: Evidence from Uganda | ||
| Phionah Tushabe | Environmental Detection of Hepatitis E Viruses Through Wastewater Surveillance | ||
| Natasha Singh | Detection, quantification and sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in wastewater | ||
| Isobel Blake | Correlation of extensive synchronised clinical and wastewater cholera surveillance data in two high risk areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh | ||
| 11:30 -11:45 | Photographs/Cocoa Break | Organising Committee | |
| 11:45-12:45 | Abstract session: Mapping of catchments | Lukas von Tobel (Chair) | |
| Jimoh Abdullateef, WHO AFRO | Environmental Surveillance Footprint in the African Region, 2024 | ||
| Lukas von Tobel | Leveraging Geospatial Modeling for Strategic Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Surveillance: The ES.world Platform | ||
| Mami Taniuchi | Mapping sewage networks and estimating catchment population for sewage surveillance for infectious diseases in low-resourced settings | ||
| Adesuyi Omoare | Mapping Drainage Systems for Multi-Pathogen Environmental Surveillance: Nigeria’s Environmental Surveillance Program (ESPN) | ||
| 12:45-1:45 | Lunch | ||
| 1:45-3:15 | Abstract session: WES in the preparedness toolkit | Kristian Andersen | Chair |
| Joyce Odeke Moore | Choosing the right Method: Evaluating Performance Trade-offs in Concentration Methods for Wasewater surveillance of viruses with Pandemic Potential | ||
| Guillaume St-Onge | Global Epidemic Modelling to Evaluate and Inform WES Systems | ||
| Martin Faye | Multi-pathogen wastewater-based surveillance in Senegal, 2023 | ||
| Edyth Parker | Metagenomic profiling of wastewater in Lagos Reveals Diverse Pathogens and Resistome Signatures | ||
| Michael Owusu | Increased Detection of Hepatitis E Genotype 1a in Wastewater Samples in Ghana | ||
| 3:15-3:45 | Cocoa Break | ||
| 3:45-5:00 | Symposium: WES of animal & livestock pathogens | Michael Owusu (Chair) | |
| Theophilus Odoom | Fishpond Effluents as Reservoirs of ESBL-Producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in the Ashanti Region of Ghana: Phenotypic and Genomic Insights | ||
| Dhana Shanmugan (Virtual) | |||
| Farah Ishtiaq (Virtual) | Decoding pathogens in environment using genomics in the Context of Climate Change and One Health: Strengths and Limitations | ||
| Erik Karlsson (Virtual) | |||
| 4:45-5:00 | Break | ||
| 5:00-7:00 | Poster Session | ||
| 7:00-9:00 | Networking Dinner |
DAY 2 – Wednesday, 15th April, 2026
| Time | Activity | Speaker/Person Responsible | Topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30-9:00 | Arrival and Registration | ||
| 9-00-9:05 | Opening Prayer & Remarks | ||
| 9:05-10:30 | Plenary: Integrating WES and Clinical Surveillance | Kerrigan McCarthy (Chair) | |
| Isobel Blake | Examples of insights, methods and challenges in comparing wastewater to clinical surveillance data’ | ||
| Kerrigan McCarthy | Wastewater surveillance to monitor pulmonary tuberculosis burden Exploring TB case counts, socio-economics and TB nucleic acid signals in wastewater in South Africa, 2025. |
||
| Tim Julian | Aligning Wastewater-derived Digital PCR, Culture, and Sequencing Data with Clinical data in Switzerland | ||
| Panel: | |||
| Thierry Kalonji, INRB, DRC | |||
| Enoch Ojenya NCDC, Nigeria | |||
| 10:30-11:00 | Cocoa break | ||
| 11:00-12:30 | Abstract session: Innovative methods for multi pathogen WES | Josh Levy, Edyth Parker | Co-Chairs |
| Kate Medlicott, WHO HQ | Overview of the forthcoming WHO Preferred Pathway Characteristics (PPC) for WES | ||
| Sam Oyola | Transforming Public Health Early Warning System through Metagenomic Wastewater Environmental Surveillance | ||
| Victor Mabasa | Investigating Wastewater pathogen Recovery: A Comparative Evaluation of Enrichment methods for multi-pathogen Surveillance | ||
| Josh Levy | Advancing multi-pathogen wastewater genomic surveillance: real-time analytics, multimodal integration, and global applications | ||
| Md Ohedul Islam | Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Assisted Mapping of Sewerage Network for the Implementation of Wastewater Surveillance in Low-Resource Urban Settings | ||
| Chrystal Landgraff (Virtual) | A targeted tiled amplicon sequencing protocol for Mpox virus detection and characterization from wastewater | ||
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch | ||
| 13:30-15:00 | Moderated breakout groups to gather feedback on WES system design and TPP | Supriya Kumar, Sofonias Tessema | 2 breakout sessions |
| 15:00-15:30 | Cocoa break | ||
| 15:30 – 16:30 | Symposium: Sustainable scaling of WES | Moderators: | |
| Patricia Akweongo & Mukhlid Yousif | |||
| Speakers: | |||
| Sarang Deo | |||
| Tafara Ngwanu | |||
| Panel: | |||
| Angela Tessarolo (HERA) | |||
| Vinod Pericheria (IsDB) (Virtual) | |||
| Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe (GHS) | |||
| Olajumoke Babatunde (NCDC) | |||
| Kwadwo Gyasi (Ministry of Finance) Ghana | |||
| 16:30-17:30 | Closing session | Future of Surveillance: Christian Happi Closing comments from Organizing Chair, Conference Chair, GF, WHO, HERA, GHS Awards |
DAY 3 – Thursday, 16th April, 2026
Bioinformatics Workshop
(By inivitation only)
| Time | Activity | Speaker/Person Responsible |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30-9:00 | Arrival and Registration | KNUST |
| 9:00-9:15 | Welcome | Kristian Andersen |
| 9:15-10:15 | Foundations of wastewater genomic surveillance for public health | Josh Levy, Keaghan Brown |
| 10:15-11:15 | Computational tools for wastewater surveillance | Josh Levy, Dylan Pilz, Lindo Ndlovu |
| 11:15-12:30 | Hands-on session: basic sample analysis across common sequencing approaches | Josh Levy, Dylan Pilz, Lindo Ndlovu, Faith Oladipo, Keaghan Brown |
| 12:30-1:30 | Lunch | |
| 1:30-2:30 | Wastewater data visualization, sharing, and ethical/legal considerations | Josh Levy, Keaghan Brown |
| 2:30-3:30 | Hands-on session: application to endemic pathogen monitoring (Part 1) | Josh Levy, Dylan Pilz, Lindo Ndlovu, Faith Oladipo, Keaghan Brown |
| 3:30-4:00 | Break | |
| 4:00-4:45 | Hands-on session: application to endemic pathogen monitoring (Part 2) | Josh Levy, Dylan Pilz, Lindo Ndlovu, Faith Oladipo, Keaghan Brown |
| 4:45-5:00 | Conclusions and next steps | Kristian Andersen, Josh Levy |
Costing Workshop
(By inivitation only)
| Time | Activity | Speaker/Person Responsible |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30-9:00 | Arrival and Registration | KNUST |
| 9:00-9:15 | Welcome | Supriya Kumar |
| 9:15-10:00 | Introductions, and context setting | Dalberg Consultants |
| 10:00-12:30 | Breakout sessions: application of country data in costing tool | Dalberg Consultants |
| 12:30-1:30 | Lunch | |
| 1:30-2:30 | Plenary discussion on cost drivers, efficiencies, and scale-up strategies | Dalberg Consultants |
| 2:30-3:30 | Supply chains as a strategy for reducing costs and turnaround time | Sofonias Tessema & Supriya Kumar |
| 3:30-4:00 | Break | |
| 4:00-4:45 | Discussion on incremental value framing for financing discussions | Laura Herman & Lee Hampton |
| 4:45-5:00 | Conclusions and next steps | Supriya Kumar & David Blazes |