Page 4 - DUT Conduit Aug/Sept 2021

4
PROF SHEE-NA KUMARI’S JOURNEY AT IWWT AND HER COVID 19 RESEARCH
waheeda peters
Professor Sheena Kumari is an NRF C-rated researcher and an Associate Professor at the Institute for Water and Waste Water Technology (I W W T) at Durban University of Technology (DU T). Her primary research focus area is water and waste water treatment, which includes applying advanced molecular techniques to comprehend the ecophysiology and pathogenicity of waste water microbes.
She joined DUT in 2008 as a Postdoctoral Fellow under the mentorship of Professor Faizal Bux and was promoted to Research Associate in 2011 and then to Research Fellow in 2013.
“In 2015, I was appointed as a senior researcher on contract and became permanent in 2018. In 2020, I was awarded an Associate Professorship based on my academic and research achievements,” she said.
COVID-19 research at IWWT began during May 2020. “Our initial focus was developing a waste water-based epidemiology ( WBE) surveillance programme to monitor the infection pattern in the community. This approach was built on the knowledge that most infected persons shed viral particles/nucleic acid in their stool, which ultimately ends up in waste water. Thus, routinely quantifying the viral particles from raw sewage would allow for monitoring the disease progression in a community within a given waste water catchment area. Furthermore, WBE has shown the potential to serve as a complementary tool for current clinical surveillance systems and an early warning system for most disease outbreaks,” she said.
WBE has long been used to help inform broader infectious disease surveillance and mitigation efforts, such as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Currently, WBE surveillance is being undertaken to generate a complementary information source to track COVID-19 infections globally.
“The primary objective of our research is to use WBE as a valuable tool for COVID-19
Pictured: Prof Sheena Kumari.
surveillance within the KZN community and develop it as an early warning system that our health authorities could use to contain the spread of the disease,” she said.
She is co-leading this research area along with Prof Bux.“We have a dedicated bunch of postdoctoral fellows, postgraduate students and technical staff in this project. I mentor the team by providing critical inputs/suggestions for method development, data analysis and dissemination of results. Furthermore, I have initiated collaborations with local, national and international partners to further expand this focus area, and explored various funding opportunities,” she said.
“All our research projects are well coordinated and we work as a team. Each role is well defined, and staff take responsibility for their tasks. The overall process of sampling and analyses is tedious and time-consuming, however, the team spirit keeps us going. We always look forward to engaging in impactful research that could contribute to society,” she said.
“We have formed a provincial task team with representatives from e Thekwini Municipality, Umgeni Water, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NCID) and the Department of Health (DoH) to discuss progress
and share results. We are also part of the national WBE network involving researchers from different universities, water utilities and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).”
Significant findings are frequently com- municated to relevant authorities through quarterly/weekly task meetings and to the public through visual/print media, scientific publications and social media platforms.
Resource-limited countries like South Africa often cannot entirely rely on mass-screening programmes in response to pandemics like COVID-19. “In such cases, WBE could be useful in monitoring infection rate trends in communities. Since many may not display any symptoms or can take several days to show, WBE can provide early signals of new infections or worsening outbreaks. It has already been used successfully by many countries. In KZN, we have proven its effectiveness during the second and third waves. We are currently monitoring one of the largest waste water treatment plants in Central Durban, serving nearly 60 suburbs,” she said.
Prof Kumari further added that the IWWT team observed an apparent increase in viral/ ribonucleic acid load at least three weeks before the release of clinical data, indicating its effectiveness as an early warning tool.
“Our monitoring programme will be further expanded to include three more treatment plants from KZN to get a true reflection of the CO VID-19 surveillance within the Province. In addition, research is also underway to expand screening to include non-sewer sanitation facilities. The tool could give us information on the efficacy of public health control measures and the impact of the gradual relaxation of lockdown regulations or even the effectiveness of vaccination in the future,” she said.
“We would also like to use this tool to monitor different variants of concern currently prevailing in the country. We would like to expand it to other infectious disease
surveillance programmes such as tuberculosis and antibiotic resistance, etc.,” she said.
Prof Kumari confessed that being a woman in research is challenging, as one has to wear multiple hats. Working with a group of passionate researchers always keeps her motivated and allows her to explore further. “Success mainly depends on your passion, hard work, dedication, perseverance and most importantly, support structure. I am fortunate as I have a family who understands the job demands and stands beside me. Furthermore, I have an excellent research team and a very supportive research structure at DUT that allows me to follow my dreams,” she said.
Pictured:The IWWT at DUT.
Biography
Prof Kumari is a professional member of the South African Council of Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP), academic member of the International Water Association (IWA) and the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA). She has an extensive publication record with a Google Scholar H-index of 23 and has published over 65 peer-reviewed articles in leading science citation index (ISI) journals, contributed to seven book chapters and seven technical reports, and has presented at numerous national and international forums. She is actively involved in student capacity development and has successfully supervised eight Doctoral and nine Master’s students and mentored several Postdoctoral Fellows. She is co-leading the waste water research area at the Institute and plays multiple roles such as principal researcher for four Water Research Commission (WRC) projects: South African coordinator of a multi-institutional collaborative project between South Africa and the Netherlands; is an academic member of the Global Water Microbial Consortium project led by Oklahoma University (USA) and Aalborg University (Denmark); co-investigator for JPI-Water project among South Africa, Europe and an intra-African project funded by Grand Challenges Africa, SAMRC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, etc. In 2018, she participated in the Innovation Mission of SA Water Experts to the Netherlands on Urban Water Technology, organised by the Dutch Embassy. She also serves as a panel member for the National Research Foundation (NRF), a steering group member for WRC, external examiner for various universities and reviewer for multiple funding agencies and ISI journals. She was also successful in acquiring research funds from the NRF (Thuthuka, Competitive Funding for Rated Researchers), WRC, etc. Prof Kumari is also a recipient of several awards, including the DST South African Woman in Science Award (SAWiSA 2019, first runner- up) and the Faculty of Applied Science Research Excellence and DUT Recognition Award in 2020.
Current Editorial Team: Simangele Zuma, Waheeda Peters
Contributors: Waheeda Peters, Simangele Zuma, DUT COVID-19 Response Task Team Images: Google Images, Unsplash, Durban Tourism/DUT Editorial Team
Layout and Design: Artworks | www.artworks.co.za Printing: ROCMedia
How to contact us
Mr Alan Khan: alank@dut.ac.za or 031 373 2906/2106
Miss Bongiwe Chiliza: bongiwec@dut.ac.za or 031 373 2106 Miss Noxolo Memela: noxolom@dut.ac.za or 031 373 2845 Mrs Waheeda Peters: waheedap@dut.ac.za or 031 373 2113 Miss Simangele Zuma: simangelez1@dut.ac.za or 031 373 2899 Mr Aman Mahomed: amanullahm@dut.ac.za or 031 373 2339 Mr Nkululeko Mbatha: nkululekom4@dut.ac.za or 031 373 2107 Mr Theo Mhlangu: nkanyisom1@dut.ac.za or 031 373 6529
Miss Nikiwe Sukazi: caadmin2@dut.ac.za or 031 373 6529