Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2024 Awards Researcher of Wastewater-based Epidemiology (WBE)

Can wastewater monitoring be used to alert communities before a disease outbreak, thereby helping to limit the disease’s further circulation? This was what Dutch microbiologist Professor Gertjan Medema’s research in the field of WBE showed to be possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, with further applications in a post-pandemic world.

Professor Medema, who is the Principal Microbiologist at the KWR Water Research Institute, has been awarded the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2024 in Singapore for his significant contributions in revolutionising the usage of WBE. Following the emergence of COVID-19, his research team was able to detect the virus in the wastewater of several cities even before the cases were officially reported. Between 2020 and 2023, his work has been cited and adopted by workers in the field of public health surveillance worldwide, with wastewater testing being conducted in at least 72 countries at over 4,000 reported sites.

“This [award] tightens the connections between the water and health sectors. In the current post-pandemic world, wastewater monitoring is now firmly established as a tool for public health surveillance for an increasing number of diseases,” said Professor Medema.

[This is an excerpt. Subscribe to the digital edition or hardcopy to read the complete article.]

Read more stories from FuturArc 2Q 2024: In-between Spaces!