Brigita Dejus on water-based epidemiology and an EU mission for the ocean
Lunch seminar and blog post
In the latest WaterCentre@KTH lunch seminar, Doctor Brigita Dejus, Riga Technical University, Latvia, talked about the development of water-based epidemiology (WBE) in the young Baltic country. She explained that a distinctive feature of Latvia is that more than half of the population is covered through wastewater monitoring in 16 smallish and evenly distributed towns.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic - the starting point of Latvia’s monitoring programme - a long series of samples have been taken weekly. The programme has given the researchers important insights, valuable to the healthcare system. Among other things, they have been able to see that the spreading time varies strongly between strains of the virus and that dominant variants of the virus play an important role.
As the samples have been saved, they are a resource for further research. Brigita Dejus stressed that Riga Technical University is welcoming towards collaboration with other universities where the samples can be a valuable resource.
In her seminar, Brigita Dejus also talked about the EU Mission “Restore Oceans and Waters” one of five broad initiatives to manage our greatest challenges.