KWR publication on monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in sewage garners much interest

Willem Koerselman Prize for most cited scientific publication in 2022

This year, no fewer than three KWR researchers will receive the Willem Koerselman Prize: Gertjan Medema, Frederic Béen and Leo Heijnen. The prize is an award for the highest number of citations to a scientific publication in the past year. Frederic Béen accepted the award partly on behalf of his colleagues, which the researchers received for the article “Implementation of environmental surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 virus to support public health decisions: Opportunities and challenges.” The counter for the 2022 citation count stands at 128. “I am proud and especially grateful that I was able to contribute to the further development of wastewater analysis to support public health with this article,” Béen said.

In the article, published in journal Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, Béen and his co-authors describe how sewage can be used to detect infectious diseases transmitted through feces and urine. Sewage as a source of information about the health of citizens, and thus as a “mirror of society. This method was proposed in the article as a tool to map the extent of COVID-19 in cities and as an early warning of the (re)emergence of SARS-CoV-2. A study that has had a particularly significant impact at the time of the global corona pandemic.