[Courtesy of World Health Organization]
The World Health Organization (WHO) had declared Zika virus as the global emergency. In order to fight and understand Zika virus, Google.org, the philanthropic brother of Google, donated US$ one million to UNICEF.
Zika virus is spread to people through mosquito bites. Common symptoms of the virus are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes), which lasts from several days to a week. But WHO suspects that the Zika virus is causing infected pregnant women to give birth to babies with microcephaly- babies born with unusually small heads and brain damage in infants. In October 2015, doctors noticed a surge in babies with the condition in northern Brazil.
Google.org’s donation will be used for vaccine research, efforts to reduce mosquito populations in affected areas, and work with communities and governments to prevent Zika transmission. Google.org is also forming up a team of Google engineers, data scientists, and designers to help UNICEF organize data related to Zika virus to make it more digestible by the public and raise awareness to prevent Zika.
“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,” said Google.org Director Jacquelline Fuller.
Many health organizations worldwide are focusing their attention on Zika virus since it has no known vaccine. Pharmaceutical experts estimate at least 10 to 15 years will be required to develop vaccines.
As bad it is, there is no known cure for the virus. The governments in Ecuador, El Salvador, Colombia and Jamaica are recommending that women delay their pregnancies to avoid any possible birth defects.
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Park Sae-jin
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