8 innovations that are helping to control coronavirus around the world
Check out some of the innovations that are already helping to prevent an even faster expansion of the coronavirus
China, the first epicenter of the coronavirus crisis , declared on the last day (12) that the peak of the outbreak had passed. Despite the rapid proliferation in other countries, with cases still increasing, the news is still a breath of fresh air. Containing the virus has been an obsession of science and medicine for the past two months and, from news from the East, it appears that efforts are not being in vain.
Innovations in the fight against coronavirus
1.Heat maps
The Facebook is providing information to researchers about moving people to identify, through heat maps, population density in real time and shifts in travel. With this, it is expected that health authorities are prepared to monitor outbreaks in locations that have not yet received the virus and also know where it came from.
2. Fake news identifier
The owner of the main social network, currently, has also joined Google and Twitter to identify incorrect information about the pandemic and the virus and direct users to reliable sources, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) website.
3. Genome sequencing
It took scientists more than a year to sequence the genome of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus genome. This time, the COVID-19 genome was sequenced in less than a month, after the first case. In Brazil, a team of Brazilian researchers from USP ‘s Institute of Tropical Medicine announced that they had completed the genome sequencing of the new coronavirus on February 28, which allows the development of diagnostic tests.
4. Detection kit
In Singapore, a network of laboratories called Veredus said it is close to launching a micro virus detection kit, which can be purchased at pharmacies. This will allow patients to be tested for three types of coronavirus in two hours. This can help to reduce the cost of testing, which has been hampering countries where there is no public health system, such as the United States.
“In the United States, the costs of a test to find out if a patient is at risk for coronavirus are highly variable and still exorbitant. According to MarketWatch, they can vary between US $ 1,000 and US $ 4,000, as the case may be, ”says an article in the online magazine of Instituto Humanitas Unisinos .
5. Intelligent document reading
A combination of smart reading technologies , artificial intelligence and deep learning has enabled 100,000 online articles to be scanned in 65 different languages daily to obtain public health information to combat coronavirus. The company responsible for the service is Canadian BlueDot .
“The company was able to alert customers about the coronavirus before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization alerted the public,” points out Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, in an article on the technology portal medical stat.
6.Prevention of outbreaks
The Metabiota , technology company to health, also uses artificial intelligence to predict disease outbreaks around the world and had managed to identify the behavior zika virus last year and the behavior of the insects responsible for Chagas disease .
The company now predicted the spread of COVID-19 in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan a week before the first cases were reported. By helping to track and contain the spread of disease, these technologies can, when further developed, prevent epidemics from crossing borders, targeting public policies.
If it were used in Italy, for example, it could have reduced the spread of the virus in Latin America.
7. Technological masks
The 3M said the coronavirus outbreak increasing the production of technologically advanced masks that, when combined with good habits, such as regular hand washing, can help protect travelers and other people vulnerable to disease.
Two Israeli startups are working on washable and reusable masks, incorporated with antiviral and antibacterial agents, which may be more effective than disposable masks.
Caregiver robot
In the USA, a patient in Washington State is being treated by a robot , identified as Vici . Through this machine, the patient is able to contact the medical team.
In China there is also the case of the Little Peanut robot , which transports food to patients in quarantine at a hotel. In a Chinese hospital, patients deliver garbage and sheets to the robots. There is also the BioSticker, which is capable of measuring a person’s temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate and cough, updating information in real time. And the GermFalcon , a robot that kills germs with ultraviolet lamps, developed to sanitize airplanes.
In addition to these outstanding solutions in the fight against coronavirus, there are also possibilities via blockchain and drones to optimize medical supply chains; remote patient monitoring for diagnosis of COVID-19, already carried out in Wuhan, China; and distance work .
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