Hudson County Community College Participates in Vital NJ Department of Health Wastewater Surveillance Program
January 8, 2024
HCCC is the only community college participating in the program to monitor the area’s wastewater for dangerous particulates.
January 8, 2024, Jersey City, NJ – Hudson County Community College (HCCC) is proud to participate in The New Jersey Department of Health’s (NJDOH) Wastewater Surveillance Program, which is part of the larger Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) program.
The NJDOH Communicable Disease Service (CDS) and the Public Health and Environmental Laboratories (PHEL)—in partnership with wastewater treatment facilities, the CDC, and local health departments—are expanding the statewide wastewater surveillance program to include targeted surveillance at New Jersey higher education institutions.
The program's mission is to identify whether there are traces of any particulates in the wastewater that might point to the presence of communicable diseases in the area, such as COVID-19, smallpox, influenza, and polio.
Chemistry Instructor Raffi Manjikian is leading Hudson County Community College’s wastewater surveillance initiative.
As part of the program, wastewater samples are collected twice a week. The samples are sent to the NJDOH for testing. Then, the data obtained from these samples is sent back to HCCC and forwarded to the CDC, helping to safeguard the community against these dangerous diseases.
Wastewater testing can serve as an early warning signal for new cases in an at-risk area and as a cost- and time-efficient screening approach to complement individual testing. This can be of particular benefit to the institution as it can aid in detecting present diseases, provide early warning to guide policies and procedures, and allow officials to view the data in an organized report.
The NJDOH invited all New Jersey higher education institutions, both two-year and four-year, to participate in this program. Hudson County Community College (HCCC) is the only community college participating in this project, joining four-year institutions like Princeton University and Rowan University.
HCCC’s participation in the program is the latest example of the College’s ongoing initiative to forge partnerships with local, state, regional and national agencies.
The project commenced in October 2023 and will last at least two years. Dr. Burl Yearwood, Professor Raffi Manjikian, Dr. Fatma Tat, and Faiza Fayyaz contributed to this ongoing and crucial project.
HCCC President Dr. Christopher Reber stated, “This is yet another example of how community colleges like HCCC can collaborate with local, state, and federal agencies to be part of the solution for community health.” Professor Raffi Manjikian, who leads the efforts, agrees that taking part in the initiative “exemplifies how academia can work hand in hand with government agencies to help make informed and data-driven decisions on public health.”
Commenting on HCCC’s inclusion in the initiative, Dr. Burl Yearwood, Dean of the School of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) stated, “The School of STEM is happy to participate in this project. The Wastewater Surveillance program allows us to use our technical expertise to benefit the College and our local community. We are pleased to be able to contribute health data to the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) that allows them to monitor the risk of disease in Jersey City.”