Dr Rachida, Said

Dr Said Rachida is a Senior Medical Scientist researching SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater at the Centre for Vaccines and Immunology (CVI) at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases located in Johannesburg, South Africa. Under the mentorship of Professor Maureen B. Taylor, Rachida spent seven years investigating the genetic identity of hepatitis A virus circulating within South African communities through analysis of clinical, water and wastewater sources. She was awarded a PhD in Medical Virology from the University of Pretoria for detecting potentially infectious hepatitis A virus strains from wastewater using viability PCR. Rachida is interested in studying the epidemiology of viruses through water and wastewater analyses.