Rapid dengue and outbreak detection with mobile systems and social networks

Abstract

Dengue is a disease transmitted primarily through mosquito bites. Innovative solutions have been developed to combat outbreaks. However, in developing countries these dengue detection solutions are often not affordable and easily accessible. Additionally, these traditional approaches are slow to diagnose and treat dengue. We present a dengue detection solution that uses vision sensors in cellular phones, a lightweight object identification algorithm, and a web server that provides spatial information to healthcare providers. Our systems leverages a novel paper based technology developed by researchers at the Harvard University Department of Chemistry (Martinez et al. Angew Chem Int Ed 46:1318-1320, 2007). Our dengue detection algorithm rapidly diagnoses dengue, transmits the results to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for further analysis, and presents healthcare providers with spatial information on outbreaks. This novel approach can improve the quality of life in developing countries by accurately and economically detecting dengue and providing data to the CDC for monitoring of dengue epidemics. © The Author(s) 2011.