AI to Find and Fight New Diseases
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are new tools to track and fight emerging new diseases
The rise of pathogens
Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases might lead us to think that we’re winning the struggle against pathogenic (‘disease-causing’) microbes.
Nothing, however, could be farther from the truth, which is something the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly made us realize. But it’s more than that. Antibiotic resistance, outbreaks of previously unseen diseases,… We’re not in the clear, far from it.
Microbes generally evolve fast. Short generation times and genetic promiscuity means that harmless microorganisms can quickly turn problematic for human health — and once they do so, they can be hard to beat.
Add to that our increasing encroachment on pristine areas, our invading and destroying of habitats, our reliance on factory farming, and it’s easy to see how we’re increasingly coming into contact with potentially pathogenic microbes and viruses.
Can we stem the coming tide of new, emerging diseases?
