OUTBREAK: a user-friendly georeferencing online tool for disease surveillance

Author(s)

Arias-Carrasco, Raul ^[1] ; Giddaluru, Jeevan ^[2] ; Cardozo, Lucas E. ^[2] ; Martins, Felipe ^[2] ; Maracaja-Coutinho, Vinicius ^{[1, 3]} ; Nakaya, Helder I. ^{[4, 5, 2, 6]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Chile, Fac Ciencias Quim & Farmaceut, Adv Ctr Chron Dis ACCDiS, Santos Dumont 964, Santiago 8380494, Region Metropol - Chile

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Sch Pharmaceut Sci, Dept Clin & Toxicol Analyses, Ave Prof Lucio Martins Rodrigues 370, Block C, BR-05508020 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[3] Inst Vand, Joao Pessoa, Paraiba - Brazil

^[4] Hosp Israelita Albert Einstein, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[5] Univ Sao Paulo, Sci Platform Pasteur, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[6] Inst Todos Saude, Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Document type: Letter
• Source: Biological Research; v. 54, n. 1 JUL 8 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 3.7 million victims and it will cause more deaths in the coming months. Tools that track the number and locations of cases are critical for surveillance and help in making policy decisions for controlling the outbreak. However, the current surveillance web-based dashboards run on proprietary platforms, which are often expensive and require specific computational knowledge. We developed a user-friendly web tool, named OUTBREAK, that facilitates epidemic surveillance by showing in an animated graph the timeline and geolocations of cases of an outbreak. It permits even non-specialist users to input data most conveniently and track outbreaks in real-time. We applied our tool to visualize the SARS 2003, MERS, and COVID19 epidemics, and provided them as examples on the website. Through the zoom feature, it is also possible to visualize cases at city and even neighborhood levels. We made the tool freely available at . OUTBREAK has the potential to guide and help health authorities to intervene and minimize the effects of outbreaks. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/14933-2 - Integrative biology applied to human health
• Grantee: Helder Takashi Imoto Nakaya
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants - Phase 2
• FAPESP's process: 13/08216-2 - CRID - Center for Research in Inflammatory Diseases
• Grantee: Fernando de Queiroz Cunha
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers - RIDC
• FAPESP's process: 19/16419-7 - Study of transmission of diseases using cell phone from infected people
• Grantee: Jeevan Giddaluru
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• FAPESP's process: 18/21934-5 - Network statistics: theory, methods, and applications
• Grantee: André Fujita
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 17/50137-3 - Long noncoding RNA interplay with the host microbiome may determine mucosal influenza vaccine immunogenicity
• Grantee: Helder Takashi Imoto Nakaya
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants