USF’s Benjamin Jacob is leading a team using geographic artificial intelligence to identify mosquito breeding hotspots and target intervention to fight the Dengue fever outbreak in Hillsborough County. The team is using mapping and remote-sensing tools to narrow the search for infected mosquitoes.
Their models incorporate weather patterns, rainfall, temperature, and other factors to identify areas at elevated risk for mosquito proliferation and dengue transmission. “When we can identify high-risk locations early, public health agencies can focus mosquito control efforts, public education and disease surveillance where they're needed most,” says Jacob. “In the future, these models could … be adapted to address other mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus, Zika virus and chikungunya.”
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