Drones: A Powerful Resource Against Infectious Disease

Military drone - Credits: Wikipedia

Drones are unnamed aerial vehicles that were initially created for military use. The first drone, called "Kettering Bug", was developed during the first world war, however, only during the second world war that drones were first used. With the focus on the military use of drones, the initial development of this technology was concentrated on improving them as aerial targets. Nowadays, they are still a lot of drone strikes, but some other functions have been explored to this equipment.



In these times, drones have been used for several other purposes, where one of them is helping some researchers in the Southeast Asia to fight an infectious disease, more precisely in the island of Borneo. According to Elizabeth Palermo, in the article "How Drones Are Fighting Infectious Disease", these researchers are using flying robots(drones) to map out the places affected the Plasmodium Knowlesi, a type of malaria parasite. The necessity of using drones in this situation came when public health officials noticed that, despite this parasite usually infect macaque monkeys, the number of humans infected were boosting. That has been happening because the transmission mostly occurs via mosquitos, from macaques to people.


The researchers expect to find out the reason why the parasite is spreading from monkeys to people more frequently right now. In the article "How Drones Are Fighting Infectious Disease", Elizabeth Palermo explains how their procedure works. 
With some colleagues, the researchers are using a small camera-carrying drone called a senseFly eBee, that creates maps and digital surface models of the communities where the paradise turned up in humans, focusing on the land and the vegetation surrounding it.

Drone used in the research
Credits: Trends in Parasitology, Fornace at al.

As Chris Drakeley, a professor of infection and immunity at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom, and one of the researchers involved in the project, pointed out "What we're doing is creating a detailed map, which we can then superimpose or overlay with the human and the macaque movement." In addition, using a drone to explore these areas is safer than sending another person that can end up being infected by the same parasite.

These unnamed aerial vehicles can be adapted to meet other goals, such as helping with research, or with some kinds of delivery. The use of drones in the military field is known the several deaths that were caused by the strikes. However, the use of drones in this research is a way of cleaning the bad impression that people have about this technology. Furthermore, the problem is not on the equipment, but on the people that decide to use it once it is not possible to ensure how many people drone strikes can kill and who will be killed, beyond its target.  Drones can be very useful to save lives too, for this reason, people should try to invest more time developing equipment that will improve life and reduce death. We need at least a balance between the damage and the profits of this technology. I am sure that they can be used for several other good reasons, and this fight against infectious disease is just one of them. We would profit much more using drone to save people instead of using it to destroy their lives.


Sources:
- Palermo, E. (2014). How Drones Are Fighting Infectious Disease. Live Science.
Retrieved from: http://www.livescience.com/48396-drones-track-infectious-disease.html

- D. Atherton, K. (2014). The History Of The Drone In 9 Minutes[Video]. Popular Science.
Retrieved from: http://www.popsci.com/watch-brief-history-drone

- U.A. (2014). Cloud Infographic - The Drone Consumer Evolution. Cloud Tweaks.
Retrieved from: cloudtweaks.com/2014/12/cloud-infographic-drone-consumer-evolution/