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Canada to the rescue!
Tracking the spread of H1N1
Despite all the efforts of major governments around the world, swine flu has been unstoppable, infecting more than 90,000 and killing more than 400 people in over 70 countries around the world. The current WHO alert level at its highest level ever. To address the pandemic, we need to monitor its spread.
Infonaut is a made-in-Canada solution (and MaRS client) that can help. Last week, Canada’s National Research Council agreed to co-invest $50,000 into Infonaut’s Region Watch Live tool, a surveillance-and-alert solution to capture influenza-specific contagion data and help public health officials control the spread of the disease. Canada, with the help of Infonaut, is doing its part.
To help understand the importance of controlling the current pandemic, let’s compare the cost to the current recession. The IMF forecasts that the world economy will grow at 0.5% in 2009 compared to 3.4% in 2008 due to the “great recession”. While the drop is large, this only represents a reduction of 2.9% in the growth of the world economies. On the other hand, the World Bank predicts that an outbreak similar to the current swine pandemic could cost up to 4.8% of the world GDP!
Canada’s support of Infonaut could help control this pandemic. The sooner we stop it, the sooner our economies can recover. Spread the word about Infonaut and help kick-start our economies while protecting our health with a made-in-Canada solution.
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Charles Lim @ MaRS
Charles Lim is on the information and communication technology (ICT) Advisory Services team at MaRS. He provides support and business analysis to technology and energy sector start-ups.
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