The Medical and Public Health Services of the Ministry of Health and the Laboratory of Environmental and Technical Processes & Water Systems - GAIA (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering / Nereus International Water Research Centre) of the University of Cyprus, have entered into a collaboration on 1 February 2023, with the aim to start the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in aircraft effluents and international airports in Cyprus for a total duration of 3 months.
The cooperation agreement was signed by the Director, Dr. Elisavet Constantinou on behalf of the IS&HY and the Head of the Research Support Service, Dr. Marios Demetriades on behalf of the University of Cyprus.
The need for the implementation of a monitoring system for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from Larnaca and Paphos International Airports on behalf of the Republic of Cyprus has arisen following the adoption of a recommendation by the European Commission (EC), which strongly urges Member States to implement as soon as possible a national surveillance system for wastewater from their International Airports and from arriving aircraft, in order to collect data on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.
The Director of Medical and Public Health Services of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Elizabeth Constantinou, said that epidemiological surveillance includes new methodologies for approaching and obtaining information through wastewater surveillance as an indirect way of monitoring virus prevalence in the community. Based on the sewage surveillance on SARS-CoV-2 virus and the know-how gained through this collaboration, the Medical and Public Health Services of the Ministry of Health are looking forward to a larger community surveillance programme, including other viruses and/or bacteria.
For her part, Dr. Poppy Karaolia, a postdoctoral researcher at the Nereus International Water Research Centre and a researcher in the project, said that by determining the concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material using the molecular method of quantitative polymerase chain reaction with reverse transcription (RT-qPCR), the 'imported' SARS-CoV-2 load into the territory of Cyprus through flights and airports will be recorded, while next generation sequencing will capture the content of the main virus variants originating from other countries.
Professor Dr. Despo Fatta-Kasinou, responsible for the implementation of the project on the part of the University of Cyprus, stressed that the implementation of this collaboration demonstrates the importance of wastewater analysis in disease/epidemic surveillance and that this collaboration paves the way for the further development of such a public health surveillance system, which will take into account more health indicators and habits of the travelling population.
Dr. Cassinou expressed her thanks to the Ministry of Health, the Department of Civil Aviation, the Airport Ground Handlers (LGS Handling, Swissport, Skylink), the Department of Water Development, the Larnaca and Paphos Drainage Boards, the airport security company ICTS Hellas, and the managing company of the two airports Hermes.
(AF)
Contents of this article including associated images are owned by PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
Source
Source[/P]
