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Africa@home

Small Grant

Mots-clés

Calcul partagé bénévole - Santé - Technologies de l'information et de la communication

Description

Ce texte n'existe qu'en anglais.

The AFRICA@home project aims to provide worldwide distributed computing resources for the benefit of computer modelling of malaria epidemiology. This interdisciplinary project is a partnership between the University of Geneva (UniGe), the Swiss Tropical Institute (STI), two Geneva-based NGOs, a Geneva-based international organisation (ICVolunteers), CERN and the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in Dakar, Senegal.

Malaria causes about 500 million clinical attacks each year, and over a million deaths, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of this enormous burden of acute illness, malaria is a major factor inhibiting economic development in endemic countries, which have per capita GDP growth significantly lower than countries in the developed world. Furthermore, malaria has its greatest effects amongst the poorest Africans, aggravating social inequity.

Simulation models of the transmission dynamics and health effects of malaria, are an important tool for malaria control. They can be used to help prioritise the development among different candidate vaccines, to determine optimal strategies for delivering mosquito nets, chemotherapy, or new vaccines which are currently under development and testing.

Such modelling is extremely computer intensive, requiring simulations of large human populations with a diverse set of parameters related to biological and social factors that influence the distribution of the disease. The STI has developed a computer model for malaria epidemiology and harnessed its in-house PC capacity, about 40 machines, to do preliminary studies. But far more computing power is required to validate such models and to adequately simulate the full range of interventions and transmission patterns relevant for malaria control in Africa.

La contribution du RUIG pour ce projet s'élève à CHF 46'000

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Equipe de recherche

M. François Fluckiger , Membre principal, Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire (CERN) .

M. Jacques Fontignie , Membre principal, Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire (CERN) .

M. William Kamdem , Membre principal, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar .

M. Michael Keller , Membre principal, Université de Bâle (Uni Basel) .

Mme Viola Krebs , Membre principal, ICVolontaires (ICV) .

M. Nicolas Maire , Membre principal, Institut Tropical Suisse (ITS) .

Prof. Christian Pellegrini , Membre principal, Centre universitaire d'informatique (CUI) , Université de Genève (Unige) .

M. Bakary Sagara , Membre principal, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar .

M. Tom Smith , Membre principal, Institut Tropical Suisse (ITS) .

M. Christian Soettrup , Membre principal, Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire (CERN) .

M. Jasenko Zivanov , Membre principal, Université de Bâle (Uni Basel) .

Actualité(s) liée(s)

Conference(s) liée(s)

OMS séminaire sur les grilles dans l'intérêt de la santé publique: le projet Africa@home – 17 novembre 2006
Ce texte n'existe qu'en anglais.
The large computing power made available through volunteer computing can be...

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Research Output

Le calcul bénévole au service de l'humanitaire en Afrique
(disponible en anglais et en français)
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