Can Big Data predict outbreaks of Dengue and Malaria?

Yes, is the answer as global researchers rally around to create unique propositions of data analytic that come alive with big data applications on practical and current issues or challenges such as health hazards namely Dengue or Malaria.

Global IT major IBM has already channelled its efforts with university researchers to use big data and related analytics capabilities to possibly predict the outbreak of deadly diseases such as Dengue fever and Malaria. It can turn to be a real shot in the arm for such on-going researches in India. Dengue is regarded as one of the deadly disease outbreak here and it takes a lot of lives in India, especially the Delhi and NCR region.

Deploying big data and analytics capabilities in this direction, this kind of research when aided with Big Data can potentially be directed towards better understanding the spread of such deadly diseases in real-time and in the process, help the authorities to better deploy their public health resources and hence, combat the spread of infectious diseases more effectively and emphatically.

How Big Data is helping here?

It is not just about predicting the spread of a disease like Dengue, the researchers are busy applying big data driven analytics capabilities from large data sets to see how climate driven changes in rainfall, temperature, and even soil acidity can dramatically affect the population of wild animals and insects that carry the infectious diseases ahead to its future generations.

The researchers are also merging information with other data, like airport and highway traffic, to further understand outbreaks and possibly predict their pattern on an yearly basis. Usage of data analytics is not a new game changer as it is being used for a long time now. As a matter of fact, data analytics has been used to predict what people can buy next on flipkart.com or even ebay.com. And big data and its implications can very well further establish it in the healthcare world.