IBM will help doctors fight Zika and Dengue pathogens

IBM will help fight dangerous diseases such as dengue fever and zika virus to physicians in countries where these diseases are common. It is mainly about Taiwan and Panama. There is still no reliable vaccine against these diseases, although talk about the need to create it has been going on for a long time. Therefore, one of the most effective methods of control is the reduction of the mosquito vector of the pathogen Dengue and Zika. A joint project of IBM and organizations from Panama and Taiwan, aimed at studying this issue, is carried out within the IBM Health Corps Initiative .

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Taiwan, with the support of IBM experts, are working to create computer models that may be useful in predicting the spread of the disease. Dengue fever is an acute transmissible viral disease. It develops with fever, intoxication, myalgia, arthralgia, rash, and lymph node enlargement. In some embodiments, dengue fever develops hemorrhagic syndrome.

This disease is typical of the tropics, and without proper treatment for dengue fever, death is quite possible. Transmission of infection provide mosquitoes. Over the past 50 years, the number of people who get dengue has increased many times over. From 2003 to 2013, there were no more than 2,000 patients with dengue per year in Taiwan. Over the past few years, the number of dengue cases per year has increased to several tens of thousands.

One of the strategies to combat the virus, the causative agent of Dengue in Taiwan, is to use the bacteria Volbahium. They complicate the process of virus transfer by mosquitoes. IBM has created several computer models that predict the influence of Wolbachia on the development of the mosquito population and the number of Dengue diseases. In addition, IBM specialists have created computer models that test the correlation of various factors, at first glance, unrelated.
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For example, this is a comparison of the level of education of rural residents with the number of eggs laid by mosquitoes in such regions. The correlation between the temperature and the number of mosquito larvae per unit area of ​​the water surface is also checked. As a result, project participants hope to receive detailed information that helps fight the disease.

According to the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of Taiwan, collaboration with IBM has helped Taiwanese doctors and representatives of other specialties to make significant progress in assessing the threat. Doctors believe that the data obtained through computer models will help to fight Dengue more effectively.



As for Panama, IBM’s work has only begun. Together with the Gorgas Memorial Institute, the company's specialists have created a system for monitoring the spread of the disease. It uses a special application, geographic information, information on the incidence of Panamanian citizens. Now the country's government plans to launch test use of the application in three regions over the next six months. At full capacity, the project will work in April 2018.

“This tool allows accurate monitoring of the spread of disease vectors, which opens up the possibility of a more rapid response of medical professionals,” says Nestor Sosa, head of the Gorgas Institute.