Mosquito borne disease prevention

Mosquito-borne diseases like Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika, etc are posing a great challenge globally to the quality of life and leading to millions of deaths, from 700 million disease occurrences annually.  These diseases create a strain on the public health system and local economies, with an overall cost of $100 Billion per year.  The traditional approach used for the last 100 years is not based on a real-time data-driven analytical approach Moskeet is an integrated data platform that provides real-time analytics on mosquito surveillance & control, disease transmission, outbreaks, and hot spots using IoT and AI technologies.  Moskeet integrates all the stakeholders which include governments, citizens, pest management & pesticide companies, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, NGOs, and research agencies.  A single disease occurrence in a family in developing countries can push them into poverty and disrupt the kids' education.  Moskeet will improve the quality of life by reducing the disease burden.

Mosquito-borne diseases like Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika, etc are posing a great challenge globally to the quality of life and leading to millions of deaths, from 700 million disease occurrences annually.  These diseases create a strain on the public health system and local economies, with an overall cost of $100 Billion per year.  The traditional approach used for the last 100 years is not based on a real-time data-driven analytical approach Moskeet is an integrated data platform that provides real-time analytics on mosquito surveillance & control, disease transmission, outbreaks, and hot spots using IoT and AI technologies.  Moskeet integrates all the stakeholders which include governments, citizens, pest management & pesticide companies, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, NGOs, and research agencies.  A single disease occurrence in a family in developing countries can push them into poverty and disrupt the kids' education.  Moskeet will improve the quality of life by reducing the disease burden.

Our solution is a Smart Mosquito Diseases Control System that uses state-of-the-art IoT and AI technology to operate autonomously and provides real-time mosquito population data both by location and species. We believe that you have to understand the problem before you solve it, and our network does just that.  There are four key components to the solution - Sensor network, Social network, Real-time analytics, and Predictive analytics.  The Network of sensors( traps) across cities identify where problems exist, the efficacy of control methods, and when to reapply.  Our sensors use novel artificial intelligence AI algorithms to classify mosquitoes.  The application provides density heat maps, conditions affecting breeding, health information and vector control history.  The platform is designed to capture data across several areas like epidemiology, entomology, socioeconomic conditions, location and weather to help in the effective management of diseases. 

Approximately 700 million mosquito-borne disease infections are reported globally per year with several million deaths.  Most of the people infected are in developing countries across Asia, Africa, and South America, and belong to lower-income groups.  Average monthly income for a daily labor family is around $100 per month and one mosquito-borne infection in the family can push entire family into extreme poverty and limit basic necessities like food, education, etc.  Governments and NGOs spend billions of dollars annually to control the disease without making reasonable progress.  The current approach doesn’t use a data-based approach and integrated pest management principles.  There is no real-time and objective system to analyze the impact of the programs.   Moskeet uses real-time data and analytics to disrupt this space by increasing the operational efficiencies across stakeholders.   Moskeet helps to bring transparency to the operations.   Resources can be deployed to areas based on the disease burden and outbreak analysis.  Virology feature helps to understand the real-time transmission of disease and provide a strong indication of hotspots or outbreaks.  This early warning can help to save lives.  Moskeet integrates government agencies, citizens, community workers, volunteers, NGOs, pesticide companies, pest management companies,  primary health care centers, and pharma companies.

Mosquito borne disease problem is real for the target population and it creates devastating impact for their family finances, and in some cases leading to death.  I had an opportunity to spend time in the target population areas and these families are not in a position to prevent themselves from mosquito bites as they stay in very small houses with open windows and sewers.  This problem requires collaboration between several stakeholders, on a platform that provides data driven insights.   Additionally, crowd sourcing of breeding sites and disease occurrence data is possible as smart phone usage is increasing.

Prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases depend on effective mosquito control measures.    Today, public authorities are fumigating without any information base regarding density and type of mosquito species in the target areas.  Current methods of manually gathering mosquito density information are labor-intensive and resulting data can be inconsistent.  Extensive use of pesticides harms the environment.  We lack platforms to predict the outbreak of diseases. 

Moskeet solution is a Smart Mosquito Density Monitoring network that uses state-of-the-art IoT and AI technology to operate autonomously and provides real-time mosquito population data both by location and species. We believe that you have to understand the problem before you solve it, and our network does just that.  There are four key components to the solution - Sensor network, Social network, Real-time analytics, and Predictive analytics.  The Network of sensors(traps) across cities identify where problems exist, the efficacy of control methods, and when to reapply.  Our sensors use novel AI algorithms to classify mosquitoes.  The application provides density heat maps, conditions affecting breeding, health information and vector control history.  The platform is designed to capture data across several areas like epidemiology, entomology, socioeconomic conditions, location and weather to help in effective management of diseases. 

A brief note on the competition.  Biogents developed a smart trap which at this point gives only mosquito count.   Mosquito count is not meaningful without providing species as only certain species carry diseases.   Moreover ,Biogents trap is very expensive and is not scalable for large scale deployment to see full benefits.  

Moskeet solution is to deploy the Smart Mosquito Monitoring Network of sensors across cities to identify where problems exist, the efficacy of control methods, and when to reapply.  Our sensors use novel artificial intelligence AI algorithms to classify mosquitoes using wingbeat, circadian rhythm, location, and 20 other parameters.   The design and operation of our smart mosquito sensor is unique. Nevertheless, it uses some common features. It makes use of well-published procedures described in the scientific entomological journals for classifying mosquitoes based on their wingbeat frequency.  The classification relies on a number of factors other parameters in addition to the wing beat.  The exact formulation of the algorithm is part of the proprietary property of TrakItNow. 

We are also currently working on virology feature.  This helps to determine the percentage of mosquitoes carrying virus or pathogens in real time, which helps in accurately determining hot spots or outbreaks.

We have two patents submitted on our device ( one approved and one pending approval).  Our teams collaborated with Florida Medical Entomology Lab (University of Florida) which is a premier research institute in entomology.

The data is sent to the System’s analytic web platform where it is combined with previously collected historical data, weather conditions, and previous spray or control applications.  The combined data provides a clear picture of the need for control, the effectiveness of the control method and when a re-application is required. 

Moskeet is currently deployed across 5 cities in India.  Below is the YouTube link from a local channel covering Moskeet deployment in the city Vijayawada, AP, India.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh6naG5V_qE&t=18s

Below link gives you a brief description of the smart trap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLSwKNcSLbE

Other media coverage based on past deployments,Hyderabad City, India

https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/2019/nov/07/project-that-counts-mosquitoes--identifies-species-reveals-dengue-danger-2058165.html

Below are the grants that we got after a thorough technical and commercial selection process,

1) Grant from American Mosquito Control Association 

2) Grant from India Health Fund for a program to eradicate Malaria in India.  Selection committee included experts from Global Fund for AIDS, TB & Malaria and Malaria No More.   This grant is in final disbursement stage.

3) Grant from National Institute of Health, USA for virology feature.  This grant is in final disbursement stage.

Number of people serving now

We deployed in 5 cities in India serving approximately 1 Million population through the government agencies who are our customers. Actual populations in these cities is over 9 Million, but we deployed Moskeet in certain areas of these cities.

Number of people we will be serving in one year

Our plan is to expand to 15 cities across India, South East Asia and USA covering 10 Million in one year.  We established partners in Philippines and Singapore so far.  Plan is to cover other countries in South East Asia through our Singapore partners

Number of people we will serving in 5 years

Our plan is to expand to 250 cities/distrcits across India, Asia, Africa, South America and North America covering 200 Million people.  TarkitNow is currently engaging with TATA Trust, Global Fund for AIDS, TB & Malaria and Malaria No More.  

Our goal is to impact 10 Million people in the next year and 200 Million people in the next 5 years.

TrakitNow onboarded partners in Singapore and Philippines so far.  We will focus on India, South East Asia and USA in year one.  In year 2, we will start expansion into Africa and South America.  Our US Corporate office will lead the expansion efforts in The Americas.   Indian subsidiary will lead expansion efforts in Asia and Africa.   

Our approach for expansion is by onboarding partners.  We prepared a criteria list for selecting partners.  We will also partner with global agencies like Global Fund for AIDS, TB & Malaria, Malaria No More, World Health Organization, Gates Foundation and related NGOs.

Target market segments are Vector Control Agencies (Government), Projects sponsored by NGOs,  Commercial campuses and residential communities.  

Exploring additional partnerships with MNC pesticide companies.  Leading company approached us for collaboration and they are interested in data.   Plan is to monetize data which will help these companies to understand their market better.

TrakitNow's team developed a disruptive and patented mosquito platform using smart traps and data analytics which addresses a real-world mosquito-borne disease problem that impacts 700 million people globally and causing several million deaths, with an estimated cost of USD 100 Billion per year. TrakitNow partnered with leading entomology labs like Florida Medical Entomology Lab – the University of Florida for ongoing research and validation. TrakitNow has a passionate and strong team of 25 employees and it includes experts in entomology, public health, epidemiology, hardware, embedded systems, cloud & mobile applications, data analytics, and business development. Founders and senior management have an extensive background in product development and worked across several geographies and industries like manufacturing (nullCorning, Pirelli, General Cable), Pharma (nullMylan), Automotive (nullNew Holland), and Agri Sectors. TrakitNow deployed/validated the solution across 8 locations in the US and India in 2019. TrakitNow won several awards like Amazon “AI for Good”, Best Startup Awards at IoT India Congress, and Best Social Entrepreneur Award at Action for India. TrakitNow will use the funds for generating machine learning data sets for medically relevant mosquito species, to add virology features for real-time detection of disease transmission in smart traps and market expansion.

TrakitNow's team developed a disruptive and patented mosquito platform using smart traps and data analytics which addresses a real-world mosquito-borne disease problem that impacts 700 million people globally and causing several million deaths, with an estimated cost of USD 100 Billion per year. TrakitNow partnered with leading entomology labs like Florida Medical Entomology Lab – the University of Florida for ongoing research and validation. TrakitNow has a passionate and strong team of 25 employees and it includes experts in entomology, public health, epidemiology, hardware, embedded systems, cloud & mobile applications, data analytics, and business development. Founders and senior management have an extensive background in product development and worked across several geographies and industries like manufacturing (Corning, Pirelli, General Cable), Pharma (Mylan), Automotive (New Holland), and Agri Sectors. TrakitNow deployed/validated the solution across 8 locations in the US and India in 2019. TrakitNow won several awards like Amazon “AI for Good”, Best Startup Awards at IoT India Congress, and Best Social Entrepreneur Award at Action for India. TrakitNow will use the funds for generating machine learning data sets for medically relevant mosquito species, to add virology features for real-time detection of disease transmission in smart traps and market expansion.