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“The ubiquitin-proteasome system in genetic and obesity-linked immunometabolic disorders”

Colloquium in Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunologymore

 

Fantastische Bilanz des ICC Water & Health bei der 37. Jahrestagung der ÖGHMP

Nach CoVID-19 bedingter zweimaliger Absage und mit zweijähriger Verspätung konnte die 37. Jahrestagung der ÖGHMP (Österr. Gesellschaft für Hygiene, Mikrobiologie und Präventivmedizin) vom 31. Mai bis 2. Juni in Bad Ischl endlich...more

 

Oct. 11, 2021: Research for our drinking water

The Inter-University Cooperation Center for Water and Health (ICC Water & Health), in which Regina Sommer and Alexander Kirschner from our institute as well as the Vienna University of Technology and the Karl Landsteiner Private...more

 

Oct. 1, 2021: Trend magazine elected René Platzer, BSc MSc PhD as its next generation top researcher

To the press release more

 

Sept. 17, 2021: 'EFIS Best Poster Award'

Congratulations! Philipp Schatzlmaier, PostDoc at the Molecular Immunology Unit (HAI), won the 'EFIS Best Poster Award' at the 6th European Congress of Immunology, taking place September 1st to 4th. He was selected as one of...more

 

Sept. 14, 2021: Venugopal Gudipati was selected to give a talk in the Bright Sparks session at the European Congress of Immunology (ECI) 2021.

At the 6th European Congress of Immunology, held online from September 1 – 4, 2021, Venugopal Gudipati (HAI) from the Institute for Hygiene and Applied Immunology (HAI), was selected as one of the 24 Bright Sparks out of the...more

 

Sept. 3, 2021: Water hygiene department

is now the test center of the Austrian Association for Gas and Water ("ÖVGW")more

 

August 2, 2021: MedUni Wien "Researcher of the Month" August 2021, René Platzer, BSc MSc PhD

The “Researcher of the Month” jury gives the award for this month to René Platzer on the occasion of the work published in the top journal “Nature Communications” (IF 13.610) „Unscrambling fluorophore blinking for comprehensive...more

 

Poster price at the PhD Symposium 2021

Congratulation to Dr. Romana Klasinc and MSc. Carmen Rehm for their Poster price!more

 

MedUni Wien Researcher of the month, Mai 2021, Dr. Venugopal Gudipati

Inefficient CAR-proximal signaling blunts antigen detection.more

 

Honuring with the "Ehrennadel der Medizinischen Universität Wien"

On Friday , 2nd of October 2020 Prof. Dr. Hannes Stockinger and Univ. Prof. Dr. Gerhard Zalbinger were honoured by the Rector for their yearlong engagement and remarkable achievements for the Medical University with the...more

 

MedUni Wien "Researcher of the month", Juli 2020: Dr.in Sílvia Cervero-Aragó

Dr.in Sílvia Cervero-Aragó What are legionella bacteria, why can they become a problem and what can be done to prevent them from spreading? next...more

 

Empfehlungen zur Auswahl von Desinfektionsmitteln in Einrichtungen des Gesundheitswesens

Von Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miranda Suchomel, Institut für Hygiene und Angewandte Immunologiemore

 

Wie schütze ich mich am besten vor einer Ansteckung mit dem neuartigen Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

Da noch keine Schutzimpfungen gegen SARS-CoV-2 existieren, stehen im Moment vor allem Hygienemaßnahmen zur Infektionsprävention im Vordergrund. more

 

Hannes Stockinger honored with Karl Landsteiner-Medal

At the annual meeting of the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology (ÖGAI) in Graz, Hannes Stockinger received the Karl Landsteiner-Medal for his merits for immunology, the highest immunological distinction awarded by...more

 

Markus Kraller wins Best Presentation Prize at Medical Postgraduate Conference

At the 16th International Medical Postgraduate Conference, held from 21 - 22 November 2019 in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, Markus Kraller was awarded a Best Presentation Prizemore

 

Doctoral thesis completed: René Platzer

René Platzer, MSc, PhD – Molecular Immunology Unit – completed his doctoral thesis.more

 

Sílvia Cervero-Aragó wins Forum Water Hygiene Award

The Forum Water Hygiene awards the Science Prize 2018/19 for our latest work on the relevance of VBNC (viable but nonculturable) Legionella, which was recently published in the number 1 journal in the water sector "Water...more

 

Great success of the 20th symposium of the IWA Specialist Group Health-Related Water Microbiology in Vienna

The 20th symposium of the IWA Specialist Group Health-Related Water Microbiology, organized by ICC Water & Health and the Austrian Society for Hygiene, Microbiology and Preventive Medicine in Vienna (September 15–20, 2019, Campus...more

 

Great success for the 11th EFIS-EJI South Eastern European Immunology School (SEEIS2019)

At this year's summer school, held from 27 – 30 September 2019 in Pristina, Kosovo, 65 participants from 15 countries, especially from Eastern Europe, could benefit from lectures and workshops in basic and clinical immunology.more

 
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Inhaltsbereich

Microbiological survey of the Danube: no critical levels were measured in Austria

As part of the microbiological research program Joint Danube Survey 4, Assoc. Prof. Alexander Kirschner – with the Interuniversity Cooperation Center Water & Health – analyzed the Danube water for fecal loads.

A microbiological survey (Joint Danube Survey) along a 2,600 km stretch of the Danube and its main tributaries, conducted by a team of scientists made up of experts from MedUni Vienna, MedUni Graz, Vienna University of Technology and Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Krems, has found that, as in previous years, there are high levels of faecal contamination in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. No critical levels were measured in Austria.

Another main finding: "Happily the situation has improved in Hungary downstream of Budapest," says Alexander Kirschner from MedUni Vienna's Institute of Hygiene and Applied Immunology, where the Interuniversity Cooperation Center Water and Health (ICC Water & Health, www.waterandhealth.at) is based.

Determination of faecal origin and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria

The general aim of this largest river survey of the most international river in the world is to record the chemical and biological conditions in the entire Danube and its main tributaries over a length of more than 2,600 river kilometres, from its headwaters in Germany down to its estuary into the Black Sea in Romania. The survey, which is conducted every six years by the ICPDR (International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River) with funding from all countries bordering the Danube, is designed and organised under of the EU Water Framework Directive.

Says Kirschner: "This time the main focus of the microbiological tests was, for the first time, to link the analysis of the extent and origin of faecal contamination along the entire length of the Danube with the occurrence of antimicrobial-resistant, clinically significant bacteria and their resistance genes." For this purpose, a completely new concept was developed to allows quantitative predictions to be made about the dispersion of antimicrobial resistances along the main effluent loads in such a large river. This involved taking water and biofilm samples (from stones and branches) at 30 sampling points along the Danube and in a further eight of its major tributaries and processing and analysing them in six partner laboratories based in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia and Romania. Samples were taken in the middle of the river and along the left and right banks, in collaboration with external fish experts.

The main results already available for contamination with faecal bacteria (E. coli) – further analyses are ongoing – are as follows: as in the previous surveys, the highest contamination levels in the Danube were found in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. "In Serbia, a non-EU country, there are no wastewater treatment plants so that there are critical to extremely high levels of faecal contamination in the Danube downstream of large cities such as Novi Sad and Belgrade," explains project partner Gernot Zarfel from the Diagnostic and Research Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine at MedUni Graz.

High faecal loads were also found in the tributaries Rusenski Lom (Bulgaria) and Arges (Romania), although there was a significant improvement in the contamination level in the Arges (receiving water for the effluent from the capital of Bucharest) relative to previous years. "This is presumably also due to expansion of the main wastewater treatment plant in this city of over a million inhabitants." The high effluent levels found in the Danube in previous years in Hungary downstream of Budapest was not found this year, which is probably similarly due to expansion of the central wastewater treatment plant in the Hungarian capital, say the experts.

Austrian section of the Danube is quite safe

As far as Austria is concerned, it was assumed that there would be a high level of contamination due to shipping on the Danube but the survey did not back this up: as had already been indicated by a concentrated measurement programme that has been running in Lower Austria since March 2019, faecal contamination levels at the sampling points in the Austrian section of the Danube are – with one exception – in the slight to moderate range. The only value that is slightly above the maximum limit for moderate contamination (1,000 E.coli/100 ml) was found in a sample taken directly downstream of the Abwinden/Asten wastewater treatment plant (1,050 E. coli/100 ml), and, according to Kirschner, "completely within the expected range for a river of this size with state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plants."

Further sampling will be done in 2020. The analyses will be published as scientific publications up until 2022 and, as well as providing basic scientific data, will also give national and regional authorities an important decision-making tool for better management of microbiological water quality in the Danube. In particular, the data that has been gathered also provides important information for the activities defined in the WHO Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance and the EU Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance, which each call for specific surveys into antimicrobial resistance in water bodies.

FWF-financed project

Most of the funding for this survey comes from a project (P32464) recently approved by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) that is being led by Alexander Kirschner (MedUni Vienna and Karl Landsteiner University), Gernot Zarfel (MedUni Graz) and Andreas Farnleitner (Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences and Vienna University of Technology).

Link: Joint Danube Survey 4

08.08.2019

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