The Spanish Society of Epidemiology awards an interdisciplinary group of the UJI for their contribution to the study and control of outbreaks of COVID-19



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## The Spanish Society of Epidemiology awards an interdisciplinary group of the UJI for their contribution to the study and control of outbreaks of COVID-19

14/09/2022 |
SCP

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* [![ guardo-jose-maria-mayoral Premio_Jose_Maria_Mayoral_22DLL15](/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2022/9/guardo-jose-maria-mayoral/Premio_Jose_Maria_Mayoral_22DLL15.jpg)](#)

The work carried out by the interdisciplinary research group created at the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló at the beginning of the pandemic in close collaboration with the Epidemiology Section of the Public Health Centre of Castelló, and composed of fifteen researchers, has been awarded the 2022 José María Mayoral Public Health Surveillance Award by the Spanish Epidemiology Society.

The group, which brings together expertise in the areas of field epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, environmental health, microbiology and molecular biology, air quality and wastewater epidemiology, was formed with the aim of providing scientific solutions applied to the resolution of health problems, and in particular, to the global public health emergency caused by the outbreak of COVID-19.

The award-winning work "Utility of integrating environmental samples in the epidemiological field study of COVID-19 outbreaks. Epidemiological case study report" focused on the development of methodologies for the detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in various environmental matrices, such as wastewater and air, and its subsequent epidemiological study with the aim of contributing to its control.

One of the innovative aspects has been the close, symbiotic and sustained collaboration that has been established between the administration and the public university, which has allowed knowledge transfer and the application of research results to epidemiological practice almost in real time. Moreover, it has been maintained over time and has contributed to the control of 20 outbreaks in the last two years.

Communication and dialogue between the different disciplines has been fundamental to transfer and adapt protocols from one area to another. This has added interdisciplinarity in the design of the tools provided to field epidemiologists that have contributed to the resolution of outbreaks. In particular, techniques for collecting environmental water and air samples and microbiological methods for analysing clinical samples have been adapted to the analysis of new matrices (wastewater and aerosol collection filters).

This has allowed the transfer of knowledge almost in real time to society, by providing and integrating environmental information that has supported the resolution of epidemiological outbreaks at the local level, and tools for measuring the virus in the environmental matrices studied (water and air) have been made available to the scientific community for resolution in other geographical areas.

Another original aspect of the proposed methodology is that it captures information from both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected cases and provides comprehensive and exhaustive information for the work of field epidemiologists. In addition, it facilitates the resolution of COVID-19 outbreaks, as in the case of a care centre for the elderly, where the points of high transmission and the places and circumstances that favoured hypercontagion in certain indoor spaces were confirmed.

The team was made up of Juana María Delgado-Saborit, Juan Bellido Blasco, Marisa Rebagliato, Paula Carrasco Espi, María Barberá Riera, Carlos Alfaro Pérez, Simona Porru and Estefanía Aparicio Llopis from the Perinatal Epidemiology, Environmental Health and Clinical Research Group; Rosa de Llanos from the Microbiology of Opportunistic Pathogens and their Impact on Human Health Group; Manuela Barneo-Muñoz and Rocío Cejudo-Marín from the Predepartmental Unit of Medicine; Juan Carlos Gascó Laborda, from the LIFE Group (Physical Activity, Fitness and Health); Vicente Esteve Cano from the Environmental and Occupational Risks Group, and Lubertus Bijlsma and Félix Hernández Hernández from the University Institute of Pesticides and Water Resources.

**Articles**  
Barberá Riera M., Barneo Muñoz M., Bellido Blasco J., Gascó-Laborda J.C., Porru S., Alfaro C., Esteve Cano V., Carrasco P., Rebagliato M., De Llanos R. & Delgado-Saborit J.M. "Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in aerosols in long term care facilities and other indoor spaces with known COVID-19 outbreaks". Under review by the Journal of Emerging Microbes and Infections.

Bellido-Blasco J.B., Gasco-Laborda J.C. "Brotes de COVID en diversos colectivos: utilidad e interpretación de las muestras ambientales de aire y aguas residuales. Aplicación y casos prácticos". Rev Enf Emerg 2022; 20(2):109-119,[http://www.enfermedadesemergentes.com/articulos/a824/dia25\_mesa3.pdf](http://www.enfermedadesemergentes.com/articulos/a824/dia25_mesa3.pdf ) http://www.enfermedadesemergentes.com/articulos/a824/dia25\_mesa3.pdf

De Llanos R., Cejudo-Marín R., Barneo-Muñoz M., Pérez-Cataliña A., Barberá-Riera M., Rebagliato M., Bellido-Blasco J., Sánchez G., Hernández F. and Bijlsma L. "Monitoring the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 on a Spanish university campus through wastewater analysis: a pilot project for the pandemic reopening strategy". Science of the Total Environment 2022 Nov 1;845:157370. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157370. Epub 2022 Jul 14. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722044680?via%3Dihub>

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