How artificial intelligence provided early warnings of the Wuhan virus
Globally, anxiety and fears heighten the spread of the virus (2019-nCoV) that appeared in China and belongs to the Coronavirus family and has killed more than 17 people so far, while the number of infected cases increased from dozens to hundreds in a few days in addition to the rapid spread of the virus In new areas. But will AI help tackle this virus?
On January 9, the World Health Organization announced an influenza-like outbreak in China, where a group of pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, China, and the outbreak was linked to a single market selling seafood in central China's Wuhan city, but cases quickly emerged. In other countries including: Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the United States and France, new infections have also appeared in new countries.
Accordingly, the scientists resorted to using the AI-based algorithm BlueDot to predict the spread of the virus, as the algorithm tracks news reports in almost all languages, animal and plant disease networks, and official announcements to issue a prior warning to avoid the risk areas of the spread of the virus.
Speed is important during the spread of epidemic diseases, but Chinese officials have no good history of exchanging information about disease, air pollution or natural disasters. Unfortunately, public health officials of the World Health Organization and the CDC must rely on these officials to follow up on the spread of this disease because the epidemic is located in China, so reliance on artificial intelligence may be the fastest solution.
“We know that governments may not be relied upon to provide information in a timely manner, so we use small forums or blogs to keep track of the developments of extraordinary events,” says Kamran Khan, founder and CEO of BlueDot.
Khan adds: “The BlueDot algorithm does not use social media posts to predict because this data is not very clear. But she has one trick, which is to access global airline ticket data that can help predict where and when the affected population will go next. ”
Indeed, I correctly predicted that the virus would spread from Wuhan to Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo in the days following its first appearance.
Khan, who worked as an infectious disease specialist in hospitals in Toronto during the 2003 SARS epidemic, dreamed of finding a better way to track infectious diseases. As this virus began in a province of China and spread to Hong Kong and then to Toronto and caused the death of 44 people. "There are some of the most advanced methods and technologies that can be used," says Khan.
After testing several predictive programs, Khan launched BlueDot in 2014 and raised $ 9.4 million in funding. The company now has 40 employees between doctors and programmers who have devised a disease analysis and monitoring program, which uses natural language processing and machine learning methods to search for news reports in 65 languages , Along with airline data and animal disease outbreak reports.
Once the automated data filtering process is complete, Khan says, humans take on the final analysis. Epidemiologists verify that the conclusions are logical from a scientific point of view, and then a report is sent to government, business, and public health agents.
After that, BlueDot reports are sent to public health officials in more than ten countries including: the United States, Canada, as well as airlines, and front-line hospitals where infected patients may end up.
Some public health experts say that despite covering up the SARS outbreak for several months in 2003, Chinese officials have reacted faster this time.
"The outbreak is likely to be much greater than confirmed by public health officials," says James Lawler, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The New York Times also reported on Friday that about eight cities in China with about 35 million people had started to implement quarantine, while the Wall Street Journal reported that hospitals in Wuhan are far from patients and that medical supplies such as masks and disinfectants have run out.
To stop the disease from spreading, public health officials must quickly report the facts. But it may now be useful to reduce the spread of the epidemic by relying on artificial intelligence.
Globally, anxiety and fears heighten the spread of the virus (2019-nCoV) that appeared in China and belongs to the Coronavirus family and has killed more than 17 people so far, while the number of infected cases increased from dozens to hundreds in a few days in addition to the rapid spread of the virus In new areas. But will AI help tackle this virus?
On January 9, the World Health Organization announced an influenza-like outbreak in China, where a group of pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, China, and the outbreak was linked to a single market selling seafood in central China's Wuhan city, but cases quickly emerged. In other countries including: Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the United States and France, new infections have also appeared in new countries.
Accordingly, the scientists resorted to using the AI-based algorithm BlueDot to predict the spread of the virus, as the algorithm tracks news reports in almost all languages, animal and plant disease networks, and official announcements to issue a prior warning to avoid the risk areas of the spread of the virus.
Speed is important during the spread of epidemic diseases, but Chinese officials have no good history of exchanging information about disease, air pollution or natural disasters. Unfortunately, public health officials of the World Health Organization and the CDC must rely on these officials to follow up on the spread of this disease because the epidemic is located in China, so reliance on artificial intelligence may be the fastest solution.
“We know that governments may not be relied upon to provide information in a timely manner, so we use small forums or blogs to keep track of the developments of extraordinary events,” says Kamran Khan, founder and CEO of BlueDot.
Khan adds: “The BlueDot algorithm does not use social media posts to predict because this data is not very clear. But she has one trick, which is to access global airline ticket data that can help predict where and when the affected population will go next. ”
Indeed, I correctly predicted that the virus would spread from Wuhan to Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo in the days following its first appearance.
Khan, who worked as an infectious disease specialist in hospitals in Toronto during the 2003 SARS epidemic, dreamed of finding a better way to track infectious diseases. As this virus began in a province of China and spread to Hong Kong and then to Toronto and caused the death of 44 people. "There are some of the most advanced methods and technologies that can be used," says Khan.
After testing several predictive programs, Khan launched BlueDot in 2014 and raised $ 9.4 million in funding. The company now has 40 employees between doctors and programmers who have devised a disease analysis and monitoring program, which uses natural language processing and machine learning methods to search for news reports in 65 languages , Along with airline data and animal disease outbreak reports.
Once the automated data filtering process is complete, Khan says, humans take on the final analysis. Epidemiologists verify that the conclusions are logical from a scientific point of view, and then a report is sent to government, business, and public health agents.
After that, BlueDot reports are sent to public health officials in more than ten countries including: the United States, Canada, as well as airlines, and front-line hospitals where infected patients may end up.
Some public health experts say that despite covering up the SARS outbreak for several months in 2003, Chinese officials have reacted faster this time.
"The outbreak is likely to be much greater than confirmed by public health officials," says James Lawler, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The New York Times also reported on Friday that about eight cities in China with about 35 million people had started to implement quarantine, while the Wall Street Journal reported that hospitals in Wuhan are far from patients and that medical supplies such as masks and disinfectants have run out.
To stop the disease from spreading, public health officials must quickly report the facts. But it may now be useful to reduce the spread of the epidemic by relying on artificial intelligence.
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