Welcome to the final seminar of the WastPan project on 26 October – the project has developed pandemic preparedness by monitoring wastewater
The final seminar of the WastPan project, in which the surveillance of communicable diseases in wastewater has been developed into a pandemic preparedness tool, will be held on Thursday 26th October from 14:00 to 17:00. Participants can attend the event on site in Helsinki or via a remote connection. Registration for on-site attendance will close on Friday 20th October.
The event is targeted at professionals responsible for communicable diseases in wellbeing services counties, the health protection authorities and researchers. The event will be held in English.
Additional information such as the exact location and the Teams link will be sent to registered participants on 23rd October.
The seminar is organised by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the University of Helsinki and Tampere University.
Wastewater monitoring can detect the warning signs of the spread of communicable diseases in advance
The WastPan project has developed wastewater-based surveillance in case pathogenic microbes and their antibiotic resistance spread. The aim of the project has been to integrate wastewater-based surveillance of communicable diseases into the national pandemic preparedness.
Wastewater samples and the microbes and metagenome contained in them have been studied comprehensively across Finland. Wastewater samples were collected from ten wastewater treatment plants for two years: from Helsinki, Espoo, Turku, Tampere, Kuopio, Lappeenranta, Seinäjoki, Pietarsaari, Oulu and Rovaniemi. Pathogens circulating and shed in wastewater in these localities and their antibiotic resistance have been examined using various methods.
The WastPan portal was also developed in the project for publishing the results of wastewater surveillance to professionals of the field and to the public. The portal will be published when the project ends in November 2023. Data will be added to the portal even after the end of the project as each research group completes its work.
The main funder of the WastPan project is the Research Council of Finland. The project has also received funding from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of the Environment, the National Emergency Supply Agency and the Water Utilities Development Fund.
Further information and registration:
Register to participate in the event
Wastewater-based surveillance as pandemic preparedness tool (WastPan project)
More information and the programme of the final seminar in THL’s events calendar
Link to the WastPan portal will be added to the wastewater monitoring page on thl.fi
Tarja Pitkänen
Chief Specialist
THL
tel. +358 29 524 6315
[email protected]
Sami Oikarinen
Senior Research Fellow
Tampere University
tel. +358 50 3281500
[email protected]
Annamari Heikinheimo
Associate Professor
University of Helsinki / Finnish Food Authority
Tel. +358 29 524 7106
[email protected]
[email protected]
