The event was opened by the Dean of the Faculty of Industrial Technology (FIT) ITB, Prof. Brian Yuliarto. In his opening remarks, Prof. Brian conveyed that Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a new breakthrough that can detect potential plagues faster. WBE technology is expected to help us to deal with pandemics in the future.

Prof. Eiji Haramoto, a Professor from the Interdisciplinary Center for River Basin Environment, Graduate Faculty of Interdisciplinary Research, University of Yamanashi explained some important backgrounds of epidemic research through Wastewater-based Epidemiology (WBE). Wastewater, especially household wastewater, can be used as an early detection for a pandemic, preventing cluster enlargement, and determining the end of the pandemic. The reason behind this is that household wastewater carries fesses to the environment and can cause disease to spread. So far, most of the COVID-19 cases were reported because the patient experienced some kind of symptoms, but with WBE we can predict cases that are symptomless.

"Japan has an excellent performance in controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 due to its low number of incidental spreads. We proposed the importance and potential of WBE to better understand," ended Prof. Eiji.

Prof. Masaaki Kitajima, an Associate Professor at the Division of Environmental Engineering, Hokkaido University explained WBE research findings in Japan. The method that was applied is virus detection through PRC and NGS devices for variant classification. The most important thing is the virus concentration.

He continued, WBE can be used to see the trend of COVID-19 cases and detect cases in a one-week timeframe. To allow for more accurate detection, the sensitivity of the detection kit can be increased. The method was named EPISENS-S. This is a very sensitive method to test wastewater routinely. The method trials were conducted in five major cities in Japan, but the result was not optimum because of the low COVID cases.

"We also utilized WBE for tracking during the Summer 2022 Olympic and Paralympic by collecting wastewater samples from 7 dormitory areas. The result obtained was 33.8%, due to high sensitivity we can even detect patients that have completed their quarantine period," explained Prof. Masaaki.

Indonesia has also implemented WBE in cooperation with the e-Asia Joint Research Program. A researcher from ITB that participated in this program is Dr. Ahmad Soleh Setiyawan, while the researcher from ITB and the University of Yamanashi is Aulia F. Rahmani, M.Eng. The method that was used is similar to what was implemented in Japan. In Indonesia the test was conducted in Bandung. The result of the WBE test can determine the dominant variant in each wave. WBE has great potential to be used as periodic wastewater observation thus allowing it to provide an early warning when an outbreak occurs.

"Thank you dean, colleague, and teams. We still have some time to go. Address to you Indonesia communities, thank you for your contribution. Hopefully we can meet again in the new research," concluded Prof. Tjandra Setiadi from ITB.

Translator: Favian Aldilla R (Civil Engineering, 2019)
Reporter: Alvina Putri Nabilah (Biology, 2019)
Photos source: freepik.com