Like most football fans around the globe, my normal routine has taken a back seat since the opening ceremony of the world cup last Thursday, and even more so once the real business of the matches got under way. So far, the spectacle in Brazil has not disappointed (apart from England’s result against Italy, which will hopefully be a mere blip in our progress beyond the group stage – I live in hope!) and even that defeat provided more positives than any losing game I can remember in recent history.
There has been the unavoidable concerns of social unrest, born from the perception that the cost of the tournament is unreasonable and even obscene in the face of the many fundamental social problems people face in the country. With the suggestion that the cost of the stadia alone could cover the entire country’s welfare bill several times over – if proper provision was being provided – it is hard not to feel a great deal of sympathy with the protesters and the communities they represent.
In spite of these issues that rightly continue to dominate the press as much as the football itself, as a fan it is hard not to be seduced by the event. The games have largely been very entertaining, with lots of goals, several shock results and just enough controversial decisions to make it a suitably exciting and fitting spectacle, that so far reflects the passion and love for football that pervades in the home of ‘the beautiful game’.
So with the action on the pitch proceeding as all the best tournaments should, and having not revisited my blog since the spring (I’ve been a bit busy), I thought it was high time for another post, and one that touched on the problems that communities face in difficult environments, had a Brazilian flavour, and focussed on my trusted theme of technology – specifically mobile – and how it is being used to provide solutions to some of the challenges faced by ‘everyday’ people and the communities in which they live.
Help in Brazil in the fight against Dengue Fever thanks to a new smartphone app
Search on Google for ‘Brazil’ and ‘Smartphone’, and you get a deluge of results on how much mobile devices will be utilised to watch world cup games, keep users up to date with stats and scores, place an online bet, order-in world cup-themed take away pizza – you name it, there’s an app for it, and they all claim to improve our mobile world cup experience in some shape or form. So I was nicely surprised to happen upon a recent Brazil-based smartphone story which wasn’t football-related in anyway, but was still very much community- based and concerned with providing a solution to a problem that potentially effects many people in the country, particularly in the tropical zones and in the over-crowded and under-resourced urban favelas that are home to thousands of people.
Reported in the NDTV Gadgets website (courtesy of Agence France-Presse), a new smartphone application has been developed to try to tackle the serious problem of dengue fever in the country, in locations where there’s an increased likelihood that outbreaks may occur. According to the article, the app, (developed for use initially in the tropical north-eastern city of Natal by university researcher Ricardo Valentim in collaboration with epidemiologist lon De Andrade, who works for Natal City Council) can be used to indicate not only the location of an outbreak, but also high concentrations of mosquitoes that would suggest a high risk area. The authorities are then able to react to prevent the further spread of the disease, and treat water sources that may be the cause.
“…If someone identifies dengue, they pinpoint it on the (application’s) map and that allows us to see where it is developing and to react immediately to stop it spreading,” Andrade said…
…If it’s mosquitos, we can locate and treat the water source. If a suspected case is confirmed, we can treat the victim,” Andrade said…
Brazil has been hit harder than any other country this century, with seven million cases reported since 2000, including 800 fatalities in the last five years.
In the Sao Paulo state city of Campinas, where Portugal’s team and star Cristiano Ronaldo are based, three women aged 27, 69 and 81 died of dengue this year…”
As the article suggests, there have been many cases of dengue in the country, a mosquito-borne disease for which there is currently no cure, both in the tropical north and also in other areas, and sadly resulting in several fatalities. Therefore being able to utilise the mass-reach of smartphone technology in the fight against the disease will come as a huge bonus if it can deliver viable protection to those communities most affected.
The full article from the gadgets.ndtv.com website can viewed here:
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/brazilians-hope-to-help-fight-dengue-with-new-smartphone-app-542263
Benjamin Smith 