A Chulalongkorn University research team has won this year’s United Nations Public Service Award (UNPSA) on Innovation in Public Institutions. The team from the university’s Faculty of Science was presented with the award for their research, “Academic Insight into Action for Pandemic Response,” recently in Seoul.
The UNPSA said the study is in response to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on health and well-being and clean water management.
Jatuwat Sangsanont, a lecturer in the faculty’s Department of Environmental Science and head of the research team, said the team focused on a system that used wastewater analysis as a key component for the early detection of disease outbreaks.
The research was inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic, he said, adding that he wants to come up with innovations using his academic knowledge to respond to disease outbreaks in the country more quickly and efficiently by using wastewater measurement data to help in decision-making and provide advanced warning.
The study focused on wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) methods. He said the research team collected wastewater samples from the Bangkok Department of Drainage and Sewerage (DSS) which showed that Covid-19 can be detected in the wastewater two weeks before an outbreak.
Further studies were then carried out and the results extended to other parts of Bangkok. Rapid and efficient preparations for disease prevention will be possible if this data is used to alert authorities to impending disease outbreaks, he said.
“Normally, disease outbreak monitoring depends on patients being admitted to a hospital. In situations where patients are not treated in a hospital, this approach has disadvantages. Using the WBE approach makes it possible to monitor a disease’s spread more accurately and expedites the process of making decisions to stop outbreaks faster,” he said.
His research is a collaboration between the Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University and the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, together with the Chulabhorn Research Institute, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Walailak University, and several government agencies.
He said the technique can also be used for a variety of illnesses including influenza, gastroenteritis and monkeypox. The approach helps reduce the cost of tracking epidemics and provides information for decision-making and the allocation of public health resources within state agencies.
The technique of utilising wastewater data, he said, can also be used to track changes in viral strains and illness outbreaks, which will help in the creation of vaccines averting more epidemics. It can also be used to detect drugs in wastewater to prevent the spread of drugs. The UNPSA Awards, established by the UN Economic and Social Council, are international recognition for excellence in public service.
