Pathogen Contamination Emergency Response Technologies

Pathogens can easily spread via water, leading to serious health complications or even death. Due to the nature of their work, first responders are more likely to become contaminated when they need to operate in areas where water is present. The EU-funded PathoCERT project aims to strengthen the coordination capability of first responders in the event that they have to work in places where the risk of contamination via water is high. Within this scope, the project will produce pathogen contamination emergency response technologies, tools and guidelines to be validated by first responders, helping them to detect pathogens quickly and to better control emergency situations.

Helping first responders to address waterborne pathogen contamination

Pathogens can easily spread via water, leading to serious health complications or even death. Due to the nature of their work, first responders are more likely to become contaminated when they need to operate in areas where water is present. The EU-funded PathoCERT project aims to strengthen the coordination capability of first responders in the event that they have to work in places where the risk of contamination via water is high. Within this scope, the project will produce pathogen contamination emergency response technologies, tools and guidelines to be validated by first responders, helping them to detect pathogens quickly and to better control emergency situations.

Objective

Pathogens are a determining factor in emergency response due to their life-threatening nature, both for the public as well as for the safety of first responders. In many cases, pathogen contaminations are difficult to detect, and require specialized technologies, tools and procedures to handle them. Pathogens can easily spread via water, and may cause contaminations of large areas far from their origin. Waterborne pathogen contamination events can occur anywhere, and may be caused by various natural events or they can be the result of human activity, either accidental or malicious. During these emergencies, first responders may need to operate within a certain pre-defined incident area, and are likely to be exposed to contaminated water originating from various sources, such as surface water, wastewater or drinking water. This can pose a significant risk of illness, disease or even death, through skin contact, ingestion or inhalation.

The overall objective of the PathoCERT project is to strengthen the coordination capability of the first responders in handling waterborne pathogen contamination events. This will increase the first responders’ capabilities, allowing the rapid and accurate detection of pathogens, improving their situational awareness, and improving their ability to control and mitigate emergency situations involving waterborne pathogens. To achieve this objective, the project will research and demonstrate Pathogen Contamination Emergency Response Technologies (PathoCERT), a collection of novel, cost-effective and easy-to-use technologies, tools and guidelines, which will be field-validated by the first responders.

More information: Webpage on CORDIS platform