The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical need for enhanced outbreak preparedness against viruses. Key elements to this preparedness are robust disease surveillance systems and effective interventions to minimize disease transmission. While individual clinical testing is the conventional disease surveillance approach, environmental surveillance, such as monitoring wastewater or fomites, offers a valuable alternative. Environmental surveillance of viruses can offer timely warnings, provide evidence regarding the presence of a disease within a community, and help identify infection trends. Equally crucial is the identification and evaluation of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that minimize transmission, such as personal hygiene practices. NPIs are particularly important during the early stages of an outbreak in the absence of pharmaceutical options.

This dissertation aims to enhance outbreak preparedness against viruses by assessing environmental surveillance systems and quantifying the effectiveness of NPIs. Specifically, this research explores the utility of wastewater as an environmental surveillance tool across different sampling scales and its use in identifying the predominance of different virus subtypes. It examines the occurrence of viruses in fomites, both as a potential surveillance tool and a transmission intermediary in a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lastly, it evaluates the efficacy of alternative handwashing agents in a laboratory volunteer study. The methods and results from this research can serve to inform decision-making in anticipation of infectious disease outbreaks.