Early Detection and Surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 Variant BA.3.2 — Worldwide, November 2024–February 2026
Weekly / March 19, 2026 / 75(10);130–137
Mila Shakya, DPhil1,2; Kevin C. Ma, PhD1; Laura J. Hughes, PhD1; Casey Smith, MS1; Lydia J. Atherton, DVM, PhD1; Alexandria B. Boehm, PhD3; Peter W. Cook, PhD1; Daniel M. Cornforth, PhD4; Meredith Gardner, PhD1; Iryna V. Goraichuk, PhD4,5; Jennifer L. ...
The article presents a snapshot of a reactive public health response – a surveillance system built to identify and track a newly emergent variant, BA.3.2. The reliance on wastewater data reveals a key assumption: that viral load in wastewater is a reliable proxy for population-level infection rates, which is not always the case. The geographical spread, documented through airport triturator data alongside broader surveillance efforts, demonstrates the challenges of early variant detection – it's...
