The company said in a blog post Thursday that it has partnered with children’s charity Unicef, lending engineers to the cause and donating $1 million to support the charity’s work on the ground. What is know is that the Zika Virus can be present in semen much longer than in blood. “There is no active transmission of Zika virus in Napa County, and the two kinds of mosquitoes that transmit the virus have not been found here”, Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa County’s health officer, said in a statement.
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Jacquelline Fuller, a director at Google.org, the philanthropic division of the search engine giant, promised to help the battle by providing enhanced mapping data and more detailed online information about the mosquito-borne virus.
Vanchiere said at least 20 states, including Louisiana, have reported cases of Zika, all of which have been imported from elsewhere.
“That means that fighting Zika requires raising awareness on how people can protect themselves, as well as supporting organisations who can help drive the development of rapid diagnostics and vaccines”.
“As a company whose mission is helping people find information, with a lot of experience in analyzing large sets of data, we’re in a good position to help – at scale and at speed”, adds the company. People can use Google Search to get detailed information on the virus, symptoms, treatment options, public health alerts and other data in 16 languages.
While Google is prototyping a new set of tools for countering the Zika virus, the effort will benefit future emergencies as well. Zika is tricky to identify, to map and to contain.
In addition to the search based efforts, the company has also partnered with YouTube creators and channels, including Sesame Street, to help spread information on Zika prevention through the video-sharing site.
The rapidly spreading Zika virus, which has affected more than 20 Latin American countries, is suspected to be the cause of a sudden increase in cases of neonatal microcephaly, a severe deformation of the brain and skull among newborns.
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The meeting is part of a broad administration strategy to establish a coalition of federal, state and local leaders to formulate a coordinated approach for preventing the spread of Zika virus to pregnant women, who are the most vulnerable because of the risk of birth defects. So there needs to be better ways to visualize the threat so public health officials can mount an effective response, she said.
