How Abu Dhabi Used Waste Water Samples From Planes To Prevent Spread Of Monkeypox In UAE
Date
1/28/2025 2:36:28 PM
(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)
A senior healthcare official has explained how Abu Dhabi used waste water samples from airplanes to prevent the spread of monkeypox in the country.
“By collecting waste water from airplanes, we are now identifying monkeypox,” said Hasan Jasem Al Nowais, Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of M42, and Chairman of Cleveland clinic Abu Dhabi.“That's what helped us identify where these flyers were coming from. We stopped accepting flights coming from these countries.”
Al Nowais was addressing reporters at a media roundtable on Tuesday, the second day of Arab Health.
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A zootonic disease, monkeypox causes flu-like symptoms such as fever and chills, and a rash that can take weeks to clear. It is usually spread from contact with infected animals or humans. Since 2022, there has been an ongoing outbreak of the disease.
He also explained that lessons learnt during the Covid pandemic helped them to deal with the virus.“Through the waste water programme, we were testing sewer water and through the urine samples that we collected, we knew where Covid was being spread,” he said.“Once we saw that the number of markers increasing in the Musaffah area, we locked it down. So no one was allowed to leave or come in. And we started clustering Abu Dhabi. That's what made spread rates in Abu Dhabi very low.”
Regular testing
Other officials explained that Abu Dhabi was always on high alert for screening pathogens. Dr Laila Abdel Wareth, Chief Executive Officer, Diagnostics at M42 explained about the regular work the team does.
“We have an environmental sciences lab, which is a very powerful lab,” she said.“It has all the latest and greatest tools. In collaboration with the Abu Dhabi political council, we are surveying sewage water for all of these pathogens. This is to make sure that we don't get a pocket where these sort of organisms are growing.”
She added that there was a regular surveillance programme with regards to the respiratory viruses.“This is part of the WHO surveillance program,” she said.“To see what are the circulating strains of influenza viruses or SARS-CoV-2 viruses and so on. We sample some of the people who develop these respiratory symptoms and we just look at if it is the swine flu or H1N1 or if we have a new virus. We do these surveillances on a regular basis all over the field.”
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