In recent months, IBM has provided support to public health agencies in Taiwan and Panama to fight against dengue fever and the Zika virus, two diseases transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, common in the tropics and subtropics.
These collaborations are performed as part of IBM’s Health Corps initiative, a new pro bono consulting that help improve public health worldwide.
Taiwan: technologies to simulate the impact of solutions developed to battle dengue fever
IBM is helping Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to create computer models to predict the effect of interventions to fight dengue fever, one of the main causes of death in the tropics and subtropics
Dengue fever is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne virus globally, increasing 30-fold worldwide over the past fifty years. In Taiwan, there were less than 2,000 cases were reported from 2003 and 2013. But during recent years, tens of thousands of new cases has been recorded.
- One of the strategies under consideration by the Taiwan CDC is to use wolbachia bacterium to make it harder for mosquitoes to carry the virus. Computer models developed by IBM are able to simulate the impact of this solution on the mosquito population and on the number of human dengue cases.
- IBM also developed models that analyze correlations between various factors, like the relationship between the level of education of a village and the number of mosquitoes eggs carrying the virus in the region or the relationship between temperature of an area and the number of larvae.
Through the deployment of these solutions, the goal is to enable the Taiwan CDC to make more informed decisions to fight against the disease.
« The Health Corps team we hosted last fall (2016) has not only enhanced my agency’s data analytics capability, but also inspired my staff to utilize the analytics framework to accelerate the work in global disease detection and in fighting against the threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious disease, » said Dr. Jih-Haw Chou, Director General for Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control.
Panama: a surveillance system to better monitor mosquitoes breeding sites
In Panama, in collaboration with the Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas, IBM created in February 2017 a surveillance system and a mobile application to relay time-sensitive information from field investigators to researchers, health officials and policy makers.
Scientists from public health agencies are beginning to use the app to collect more accurate data on disease outbreaks and breeding sites of mosquitoes that spread dengue and Zika.
In a second time, they will transmit this information to the Taiwan’s Ministry of Health to facilitate and improve decision-making for infectious diseases control.
Panama is conducting pilot tests of the app in three townships in the next six months and plans a wider roll out by April 2018.
« This tool will allow a more precise, geo-referenced, and timely gathering of mosquito breeding site information which in turn will result in a quicker response to and control of outbreaks, » said Dr. Nestor Sosa, Director General, Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas.
IBM Health Corps fight against inequalities in access to care
The launch of IBM’s Health Corps was announced in 2016. It is the latest example of pro bono consulting and technology services within the company’s portfolio of problem solving initiatives.
Health Corps deploys interdisciplinary teams that draw upon IBM’s capabilities in data analysis, cognitive and cloud computing, but also development of mobile applications, IoT and weather and health consulting to develop strategies that help communities improve some aspects of public health.
The aim is to address disparities in access to health care, to improve the services of the sector and increase the impact of the solutions developed in the industry.