In 2023, Austria introduced a national vaccination program for human papilloma virus (HPV), joining WHO’s call to eliminate cervical cancer, and expanding on its goals by including males. Yet, lack of any HPV surveillance systems poses severe challenges in assessing the impact of vaccination, the evolutionary consequences on circulating HPV genotypes, and the basic sociality of HPV within Vienna’s dense interconnected urban environment.

This project proposes a novel transdisciplinary approach which integrates sequencing-based genomic epidemiology, mixed-method public health research, and agent-based modelling to tackle these interconnected challenges. We will map viral population dynamics onto urban social dynamics, unveiling transmission networks and contributing to prevention of HPV-linked cancers. Partnering with an NGO focused on underserved patients, volunteer swabbing for HPV is enhanced by social participatory design methods, and complemented by a novel pipeline to detect population-wide circulating HPV genotypes from wastewater. Agent-based modelling will allow testing the risk of high impact variants and indirect effects of vaccination. Our pioneering approach tackles existing socioeconomic inequalities and gender disparities with a special focus on males. 

This transdisciplinary strategy pushes the boundaries of current public health, with the potential of serving as a blueprint for effective prevention and surveillance of infectious diseases in the urban environment.