IBM wants to use its technology to help fight Ebola

The battle of humanity against the scourge known as Ebola rages on, and it is extremely encouraging to see different facets rise up and make a stand. IBM will make their contribution in the form of their super-computing data crunching capabilities over in Sierra Leone, where this particular system would enable citizens to make reports of Ebola-related issues. Apart from that, the government, health agencies and other people too, will be able to keep track of the disease.

IBM will put its super-computing data crunching to use in Sierra Leone, as part of the fight against the deadly disease Ebola. It has launched a system which allows citizens to report Ebola-related issues and government, health agencies and others to keep track of the disease. Citizens can use SMS or voice calls that are location-specific. The data will then be analysed to identify correlations and highlight issues. Already, regions with growing numbers of suspected Ebola cases have been pinpointed and the delivery of urgent supplies such as soap and electricity have been sped up. “We saw the need to quickly develop a system to enable communities directly affected by Ebola to provide valuable insight about how to fight it,” explained Dr Uyi Stewart, chief scientist of IBM Research in Africa.