Division Water Quality and Health

The quality of water is of fundamental importance for human health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 10% of the global health burden is due to unsafe water or lack of sanitation. In the sense of the WHO approach, DWQ&H relates traditional investigation parameters to directly health-oriented quality objectives. Based on this, monitoring and management strategies for safe water use are derived.

Interdisciplinary cooperation

The research focus on DWQ&H is realized within the framework of the extension of the Inter-University Cooperation Centre Water and Health (ICC Water & Health, www.waterandhealth.at) founded between the Medical University of Vienna, the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences.

Within the ICC Water & Health, Prof. Farnleitner also holds a full professorship at TU Wien, leading the Research Group Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostics.

• The multidisciplinary cooperation of these three institutions creates an internationally visible centre in the field of water and health in the Central European Danube Region.
• The research groups of the ICC Water & Health are strongly networked internationally and is represented in international committees and organizations. A central concern is to pass on the scientific knowledge gained to society within the framework of student teaching, through training and further education, at specialist societies and congresses, and generally through public relations work.

Head of the Division of Water Quality and Health (DWQ&H)

Former Visiting Researchers:

• Warish Ahmed - Microbiology & Virology, Research Program in Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Land & Water.
• Sílvia Monteiro - Microbiology & Virology, Erasmus+
• Savannah Scott - Molecular Biology, Fulbright Scholar