Brazilian population has not responded well to the prevention programs to combat arboviral diseases, such as Zika and Dengue. Concerns with such diseases has led an overwhelming number of people to increasingly share online strategic information, including the discovery of mosquito breeding sites in public locations. Term social sensors refers to the online population that is motivated to contribute relevant information on social media channels. Recent increasing use of smartphones triggered the growing use of social networks even in poorer communities. Strategic information in these locations are harder to gather for health agents. The health agencies in Northeast should explore the collective knowledge generated by people to improve prevention and combat actions. Although the Brazilian Health System requires that health agents report each Zika case, it takes several days to process and publish this information. The project will develop a platform for promoting virtual communities to prevent and combat Zika. Its core is the VazaZika application. VazaZika will use geolocation and gamification technologies for stimulating citizens to denounce and confirm Aedes breeding sites, and for updating users, in real time, about actions taken by health agents.

Research Project, 2017 – Current