AI for planning, executing, and monitoring of large-scale, cost-effective anti-malaria operations
First place ($3M) in the IBM Watson XPRIZE AI for Good competition, Cisco Global Problem Solver 2021, Google for Startups SDGs
Killing, every year, hundreds of thousands, sickening millions and greatly impeding developing economies, malaria is one of the worst problems in Africa. Nonetheless, malaria has been eliminated after successful operations in many countries, specifically, well resourced countries. A key method in these operations was thorough treatment of the water bodies in which mosquitoes breed. Such operations require significant investment, but completely resolve, rather than merely manage the problem. Zap Malaria developed an artificial intelligence-based system that enables the planning and execution of operations that are highly cost-effective even in Africaâs most challenging conditions.
Zzapp Malaria considers malaria to be one of the worldâs biggest solvable problems. An artificial intelligence-based system for planning, executing, and monitoring of large-scale, cost-effective anti-malaria operations
Zzapp intentionally designed their artificial intelligence to include all communities, in all areas. For example theirhouse-detection algorithm detects not only modern houses (prevalent, for example, in Ghana) but also traditionally built huts (prevalent, for instance, in Malawi). Zzapp works well both on less advanced smartphones and in areas with weak internet infrastructure and limited access to power sources. Furthermore, the app uses iconography in addition to text, to make it accessible to low-literacy audiences, and to maximize the efficiency of field workers. They have discovered that for many of their workers the app is a first-time encounter with digital technology, and that the training they receive from them is a significant source of empowerment for them in many additional areas. The app is very user-friendly, so that the average training, even of high-school graduates who lack technological literacy, takes no longer than a few hours. Furthermore, it works on inexpensive phones available in low-income countries, can work offline when in the field, and conserves battery life.
In 2021, in a controlled trial in an urban area in Obuasi, Ghana, covering more than 200,000 people, Zzapp reduced the mosquito population by 60% for a cost that was 4% of conventional mosquito removal. In 2022, in a randomized controlled trial in districts with *both urban and rural areas* in São Tomé, covering more than 130,000 people, Zzapp reduced the mosquito population by 67% and malaria prevalence by 40% for a cost that was 20% of conventional mosquito removal.
Zzapp aims to work with all countries where malaria is present. Currently in discussions with government officials in Rwanda; the vice minister of health of Equatorial Guinea; and, in Kenya, together with the government, Zzapp launched a pilot in collaboration with KEMRI and ICIPE (leading local research institutions). Zzapp is also working with Goodbye Malaria (an international NGO) in Mozambique and have proposed a collaboration with ABT Associates for a project in Ethiopia. Their target countries are those where malaria poses the heaviest health burden - namely Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Uganda, and DRC. In the mid-term we hope to apply our solution outside of sub-Saharan Africa, to other countries including Guyana and Suriname, as well as Solomon islands, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, India, and Cambodia.
