There is a new weapon in the war against dengue and Zika, and it fits right inside your smartphone.
Mozzie Watch Keeper @ North West is an interactive e-learning mobile application launched yesterday in an effort to rally the community to learn about, prevent, spot and report cases of potential mosquito breeding grounds.
It is jointly developed by North West Community Development Council (CDC), Holland Bukit-Panjang Town Council and the National Environment Agency (NEA).
According to NEA, the warmer weather this year has shortened the breeding cycles of mosquitoes, which has resulted in an unusually high number of dengue cases since the start of this year – at least 7,968 so far.
The app was developed to address the urgency of dengue prevention as well, in light of the recent Zika case.
It contains a Spot and Report module, with which users can take pictures of potential mosquito breeding grounds and report them to NEA.
It also has an e-learning quiz module aimed to create awareness of and provide knowledge for effective dengue and Zika prevention.
This is not the first time a CDC has tapped on technology to combat dengue and Zika. Earlier this week, South West CDC and NEA collaborated with global life sciences company Bayer to develop an educational portal on mosquito-borne diseases.
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