Prof. Dr. Adnan Ibrahim Al-Hindi, Professor of Medical Parasitology, Department of Laboratory Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences at Islamic University of Gaza, has received the Dan Wartenberg Travel Award based on the societal contributions of the last two decades. This award is named in memory of Dr. Dan Wartenberg, an epidemiologist, teacher, researcher, and community advocate.
Prof. Al-Hindi received the award at the 34th International Conference in Athens, Greece, under the supervision of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (based in the United States of America).
While receiving the award, he participated in a specialized workshop held by the award committee and presented his experience in community contribution at the Islamic University through the service learning project, the e-bug project, and the Hand-Washing projects in Palestinian schools in the Gaza Strip.
Participation in the conference
The 34th International Conference included more than 125 lectures over four days on a variety of topics, the most important of which are: climate disasters, human health, public health, pollution and exposure, and health in low and middle-income countries.
Prof. Al-Hindi participated in the conference with a research paper entitled “Detection and Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii in the Environmental matrices (Soil and Water) in Gaza, Palestine”. The research aimed to determine the prevalence and genotypes of T. gondii eggs in soil and water samples from Gaza, Palestine. (290) environmental samples were collected, including (200) soil samples and (90) water samples. Soil samples were collected from the Valley of Gaza and near garbage containers, residential yards, the open-air market, public squares, and gardens. Water samples were collected from the Valley of Gaza and the main sewage treatment plant in the city, and they were examined using PCR techniques and the Sheather concentration technique. The genotyping of four specimens was performed by RFLP-PCR.
The results showed that out of 290 samples examined by the Sheather technique, 31 (10.68%) were confirmed contaminated, while 22 (7.58%) were positive by PCR. The genotyping results revealed that all four tested samples were T. gondii strain-1, with a statistically significant relationship between T. gondii prevalence and sampling site.
The study concluded that the parasite Toxoplasma gondii is present in the Palestinian environment and confirmed the genotype to which T. gondii belongs, which is the first type. It recommended future studies to determine the genotypes of human samples, especially aborted women.
It is worth mentioning that the research team consists of Mr. Zuhair Dardouna, a PhD student at Cadi Ayyad University in Morocco, and is supervised by Prof. Dr. Al-Hindi and Prof. Dr. Samia Bousa, with contributions from Dr. Mohamed Hafidi, Dr. Ali Bouzgha, and Prof. Dr. Fadl Al-Sharif.
