AI could help fight the spread infectious disease around the world

Communicable diseases represent a critical challenge for resource-strapped public health infrastructures worldwide. As evidenced by the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, influenza A H1N1 (or "swine flu") in 2009, Ebola and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2014, and the Zika virus in 2016, infectious diseases can spread rapidly within countries and across national borders. In China alone, the World Bank estimated the economic cost of SARS at $14.8 billion, and while both Europe and the United States were largely spared its ravages, the epidemic impacted global gross domestic product (GBP) by $33 billion. In an era of global air travel and densely concentrated, interconnected populations, most countries remain woefully underequipped to stem the tide of such infections. Public health policymakers are tasked with deciding the nature and timing of appropriate courses of action to prevent, detect, and respond to an infectious disease outbreak.