Microsoft’s latest anti-virus target: Harris County mosquitoes
Harris County officials are teaming up with techgiant Microsoft to find and research mosquitoes that could carry the Zika virus or other mosquito-borne diseases.
As part of “Project Premonition,” 10 traps across Harris County will collect data on mosquitoes, from when the insects were trapped to the temperature, barometric pressure and humidity during capture. Harris County is the first county in the country to use Microsoft’s trap devices.
The devices will also track behavioral patterns of the mosquitoes, including what time of day certain mosquito species venture out. The data collected could be used to predict when and where certain mosquitoborne diseases occur.
“With Harris County’s deep, long-running expertise in mosquito surveillance and mosquito-borne diseases, they’re really an ideal partner,” Microsoft researcher Ethan Jackson said. “They can tell us that this is the right way to use this data for public health purposes.”
Microsoft ultimately hopes to use drones to determine areas that certain mosquitoes inhabit across the county.
However, Microsoft wants to make sure residents are informed of what areas the drones will be in and not feel as if their privacy is being breached.
“It will take us a little more time to make sure the systems are really tested and ready before putting them in a real place like Harris County,” Jackson said of the drones.
Jackson doesn’t expect to start testing drone systems in the United States for another few months.
Microsoft’s “Project Premonition” began experimenting with the devices in Grenada in 2015 after Chikungunya, a virus transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes, broke out there. Since then, the company has further developed its trapping devices, so that extremely detailed profiles can be made of certain mosquitoes. For example, the trap can record data about how the insect’s wings are flapping, which can help determine its species.
The computerized traps can filter out other flies and insects that aren’t being targeted. Officials emphasized that mosquitoes carrying Zika had not yet been detected in Harris County.
Last week, three trap devices were placed in areas around Harris County as part of the project. Seven more devices are expected to be placed in other areas over the next few weeks, said Elizabeth Perez of Harris County’s public health and environmental services department. Detailed data
The program is free for Harris County’s public health department, as Microsoft is using the county as a test site.
Each trap device is made up of 64 smart cells and is able to capture that many mosquitoes. The smart cells give researchers individual data about each mosquito. The traps are usually left outside for 14 to 16 hours, then collected by researchers. Data from the traps can be transmitted wirelessly through cellular or Bluetooth networks. However, Jackson said that the majority of the data is saved on a memory card inside the trap.
“The data that we’re seeing from even this first week is interesting. We can already see that the traps can distinguish between certain species of mosquitoes in real time,” Jackson said. “If you want to monitor Zika vectors or you want to monitor West Nile vectors, the trap can actually tell them apart and only capture the ones you’re interested in studying.”
Jackson said that Harris County’s Mosquito Control Program really stood out to Microsoft researchers.
“The reason why our mosquito control program is nationally renown is because we do a lot of things that a lot of other counties don’t do. We do a lot of disease surveillance. We actually map that type of data out. We have inhouse virology labs,” Perez said. Prevention is key
Jackson said Houston’s size also played a role in the decision to test the program in Harris County.
“Houston has, of course, both the large human population and large mosquito population that are known to be potential carriers of Zika,” Jackson said.
There have been 13 cases of Zika virus reported in Harris County and a total of 46 reported in Texas. Perez said the Zika virus cases in Harris County have all been travel-related. There have been no reported human cases of West Nile virus in Harris County this year. In 2015, there were 275 reported cases of West Nile virus, which caused 16 deaths. Earlier this month, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner asked the state to declare the Zika virus a public health emergency.
“We’re trying to prevent, educate and engage because with specifically Zika there is no silver bullet,” Perez said. “We’re not going to be able to spray our way out of Zika.”
Perez also warned Houstonians not just to focus on Zika virus but other diseases as well, such as West Nile.
“The epithet of public health is prevention,” Perez said. “If we wait until our mosquitoes have it, we’re already behind the curve.”