UNLV professor Edwin Oh joined ARC Reno on Wednesday to discuss new research showing hospital wastewater monitoring may help detect dangerous drug-resistant C. auris outbreaks months before patients show symptoms. The study involved researchers and public health partners across Nevada, including the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory in Reno. Researchers say the technology could help hospitals identify outbreaks earlier and improve response times.

A deadly fungus called C. auris can be detected in sewer water from hospitals and nursing homes five months before it shows up in clinical tests of patients, according to a new study. 

Candida auris presents ongoing challenges for Nevada’s healthcare facilities. In 2025, the Silver State on its own accounted for 22% of the nation’s nearly 7,200 C. auris cases — reporting 1,605 infections to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and outpacing California’s roughly 1,550 cases and Texas’ 830. When adjusted for population, Nevada logged 20 times more cases per capita than its coastal neighbor.

A new UNLV-led study found that testing wastewater from hospital sewer lines can detect drug-resistant strains of C. auris months before patients begin showing symptoms, offering health officials an earlier warning of potentially deadly outbreaks.

Every hospital has drains. Sinks, toilets, floor gullies in procedure rooms, the slow trickle from IV lines flushed between patients. For years, all of that went down the pipes and nobody thought much about it. But researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have spent the better part of four years paying very close attention to what hospitals are washing away, and what they’ve found in Southern Nevada’s sewer lines is, by any measure, alarming: a drug-resistant killer fungus circulating through healthcare facilities months before a single patient tests positive.

UNLV-led research team uses wastewater surveillance to suss out C. auris strains with greater precision, paving way for potential new therapeutic development

While no cases have been reported in Nevada, researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who conduct local wastewater surveillance and have monitored COVID-19 variants, say hantavirus is not currently included in their testing panel. However, they note that detection may be possible since the virus is shed through urine. Researchers say it is something they will continue to monitor as they consider targeted applications.

Roseman University of Health Sciences has opened a biotech incubator that many people hope will be another key component of diversifying Southern Nevada’s economy. Two women are creating content for YouTube that they hope will help dementia patients and caregivers face their journey with grace and humor. 

Wastewater surveillance became a popular choice among public health officials looking to track rapid virus mutations and spread patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. But what if there was a way to detect emerging virus pathogens even faster — or to even sniff out new variants possibly before patients even realize they’re ill? A new UNLV-led study is moving that dream one step closer to reality by pairing wastewater sample surveillance with artificial intelligence. The results appear in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications.

UNLV researchers are now using the help of AI to look at wastewater samples for viruses before people experience symptoms.

A new study and new research formulated at UNLV is leading the way to track rapid virus mutations and spread patterns, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As industries across sectors explore the potential of artificial intelligence, researchers are transforming wastewater monitoring into sophisticated digital detective work.