Google announces initiative aimed at pandemic and infectious disease response

| 02.06.2008 | 14:39:098872 |

February 6 '08: On its official blog, Google has announced a series of five initiatives, including one that will locate and respond to areas around the globe where infectious disease and pandemic have arisen. The Predict and Prevent program will work to pinpoint locations of disease as well as identify resources, manpower, information and data which can respond, mitigate current or prevent additional outbreaks.

A detailed PDF of the Predict and Prevent program found that around $18 billion in losses in East Asia alone have been attributed to the SARS outbreak of 2005 and that as the global economy merges, combined with increasing pressures stemming from global climate change, the rates of disease will increase.

"Google.org will work to strengthen the science, technology, and capacity to predict shocks and prevent subsequent crises. We will begin our efforts with a focus on emerging infectious diseases," the PDF read.

Part of the Predict and Prevent initiative's goal is establish better early warning systems as well as quicker detection, response and validation systems. "The goal of Predict and Prevent is two fold. First, to move down the epidemic curve to the earliest point of detection and rapid response ... Second, to move ahead of the curve to a better understanding of the complex factors that lead to emergence of diseases in the first place."

"Our strategies there will focus on two parallel but highly integrated pathways to identify hotspots and enable a rapid response," the PDF read.

predict_prevent_brief.pdf