The World Health Organization has declared the Zika virus to be a global public health emergency. This was due to the rapid spread of the virus in the Americas, and concerns about its link to a rise in severe neurological diseases. Most notably, some pregnant women who have contracted the Zika virus have given birth to infants with brain development issues caused by a condition called microcephaly. In April 2016, the Centers for Disease Control confirmed the link between the Zika virus in pregnant women and cases of microcephaly in some fetuses and newborns.
Until recently, there has been relatively little research about the Zika virus — in fact, there is no known effective treatment, cure or vaccine.
The OpenZika project on IBM’s World Community Grid is a global research collaboration, led by Dr. Carolina Horta at the Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brazil. The main characteristic of OpenZika Project is that it is an Open Science collaboration, and all researchers in the world can contribute to this project. It started with the ideas of Dr. Sean Ekins (CEO, Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), who is Co-PI of this project.
Anyone with a computer can help by donating their unused CPU cycles to run calculations that will help advance our OpenZika research. Even Android users can use their smartphones to run calculations when it’s inactive and being recharged. Now, there is no reason for the global community to feel powerless against the Zika virus, here is something everyone can do to make the difference!