How can technology help in the fight against zoonisis? Aspiring vet, Erin Tan, did some research on the topic and shares what she thinks in this second article in a two-part series.
* This article first appeared in HalenessMe.
Emerging technology can help in mainly two ways.
Firstly, through harnessing the power of Big Data, information from previous outbreaks, and studies conducted independently around the world, can be collated to help predict where a deadly zoonotic virus will strike next.
About The Author
Erin Tan is an aspiring Veterinarian.
She will be reading Veterinary Medicine at Emmanuel College in the University of Cambridge.
The vast availability of health data today means that data must be intelligently handled, using the right tools to derive helpful trends.
For instance, Google Flu Trends collated data from users’ searches to estimate influenza activity, and was found to show strong correlation with official data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the 2009 flu pandemic.
The web-based app Supramap uses genomic data to track the global movement of avian influenza virus.





