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Order of Merit for virologists: Dittmer fights for health and peace!
Prof. Dr. Ulf Dittmer from the University of Duisburg-Essen receives the North Rhine-Westphalia Order of Merit for his contribution to combating Corona and helping Ukraine.
Order of Merit for virologists: Dittmer fights for health and peace!
On April 3, 2025, Prof. Dr. Ulf Dittmer was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia by North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst. This honor recognizes Dittmer's outstanding commitment during the corona pandemic and his support for Ukrainian refugees. Prof. Dittmer is director of the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital Essen and a member of the Medical Faculty at the University of Duisburg-Essen. His initiative to establish corona diagnostics and his significant role in the vaccination campaign for health workers in Essen highlight him as a leading expert in the fight against COVID-19 uni-due.de reported.
The award reflects Dittmer's wide range of activities: He has worked intensively on the medical care of Ukrainian refugees in Essen, who have faced numerous challenges since the beginning of the Ukrainian war. He also supports the establishment of an infectious disease diagnostics facility in Poltava, Ukraine. Prof. Dr. Jan Buer, Dean of the Medical Faculty, highlights the importance of Dittmer's work during the pandemic and emphasizes the collaboration with colleagues from clinics and institutes.
Scientific context
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had a significant impact on society and created new challenges in the field of medical care. Important properties of the virus are crucial for diagnostic, therapeutic and epidemiological approaches. SARS-CoV-2 was identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and requires complex diagnostic measures. The gold standard for detecting an active infection is direct pathogen detection using nucleic acid amplification techniques (NAT), which makes the expertise of virologists like Dittmer particularly relevant PMC published.
At the onset of symptoms, a swab of the upper respiratory tract is most appropriate because there is a high viral load there. In later phases of the disease, samples from the lower respiratory tract can also be used for diagnostics. Antigen and antibody tests are important complementary tools, but they do not replace direct detection of the pathogen. While mutations such as D614G can increase infectivity and thus influence diagnostics and therapy, Dittmer emphasizes the need for mutation monitoring.
Research funding and future prospects
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has changed the research landscape in Germany and the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) has launched significant funding programs to support health research. In total, almost 1.8 billion euros have been made available to combat COVID-19 since March 2020. These programs contributed to the development of the first test and the first approved COVID-19 vaccine in the EU and the US, as reported on the BMBF website is to be read.
Special funding measures include a rapid response module for COVID-19 research and a special vaccine development program supporting major companies such as BioNTech and CureVac. These initiatives underline the urgency and importance of research activities to address the health and social challenges posed by the pandemic.
Overall, the award from Prof. Dr. Ulf Dittmer not only his individual merits, but also the composition of many specialists, institutions and funding measures that are working together on a solution to COVID-19.