International Business Machines, based in Armonk, N.Y., is joining global health officials in the fight against Zika by offering its technology, resources and expertise to track the spread of the virus, according to Reuters.
Here are four ways IBM is helping combat the spread of Zika:
- IBM will donate a one-year subscription feed of highly localized daily rainfall, average temperature and relative humidity data to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, since these weather factors contribute to the breeding habits of the mosquitoes that carry Zika.
- A research institute called the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation — affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Health — will use IBM's technology to analyze information about the spread of the virus ranging from official data of human travel patterns to anecdotal observations made by the public on social media.
- IBM is working with Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., to collect biological and ecological data of mosquitoes and primates that may help create algorithms to determine which primates are Zika carriers.
- Currently, IBM runs the 'OpenZika Project' through the World Community Grid — the company's crowd-sourced supercomputer. The project lets scientists in the U.S. and Brazil analyze millions of chemical compounds to identify potential drug candidates that could be used to treat someone infected with Zika virus.
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