The invisible shield: How Michigan Public Health is transforming outbreak detection in Michigan

June 24, 2025

Researchers at the Michigan Public Health Integrated Center for Analytics and Modeling (MICOM) are using real-time wastewater surveillance to detect virus outbreaks before they start.

By tracking the number and type of viruses shed in human waste, researchers provide public health officials with a powerful early warning system.

“We track a wide range of different pathogens from the flu to measles in the wastewater. When you use the bathroom, if you’re sick, you shed virus or pathogen into the waste and that goes to the wastewater treatment plant. By tracking that, we can track how much activity there is for flu or RSV or norovirus, or any number of pathogens that would be hard to track otherwise,” explains Marisa Eisenberg, professor of Epidemiology and co-director of MICOM.

“We translate information so that people can understand more about their world. We make the data more accurate, faster, and easier to interpret,” said Emily Martin, professor of Epidemiology and co-director of MICOM.

When a spike appears, health departments take action, and MICOM tracks whether those efforts are effective. This is public health infrastructure you never see, but rely on every day.

Video produced by the University of Michigan’s Office of the Vice President for Research.