Vietnam, Germany cooperate in preventing future pandemics
An environmental microbiology laboratory, which is capable of detecting pandemic viruses through testing wastewater samples, will be set up at Vietnamese - German University (VGU) with the support of the World University Service (WUS) of Germany.
Illustrative image. (Photo: VNA)
The lab, worth around 500,000 EUR (533,860 USD), will be funded by the Ministry of Economics of the German State of Hessen and the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development. It will be the first one of this type in Southeast Asia and will effectively contribute to the early detection of the pandemic.
Various studies showed that the virus can be noticed in wastewater up to 14 days earlier by evaluating tests. This will be useful in combating pandemics, for example, researchers can localise an epidemic hotspot on a certain street.
The early detection of the pandemic through the study of domestic wastewater has been developed by Dr Susanne Lackner of Germany’s Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt). The laboratory at TU Darmstadt is also one of the leading laboratories for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 by genome sequencing and operates as a reference laboratory of the European Union (EU).
WUS President Kambiz Ghawami said that the above-mentioned cooperation reflects the friendly, deep and close relationship between the state of Hessen and Vietnam, making an essential contribution to the cooperation in research and teaching in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)./.
VNA
