Now, more than ever, there are questions surrounding infectious disease due to the current pandemic. High-quality outreach programs and accessible education resources are needed to inform members of the community, as more questions arise. GIDI is proud to have supported these projects by Dr. Martin Wu and and Dr. Cirle Warren.
ConexionesPositivas (CP) mobile app for COVID-19 in the Hispanic Community
- Cirle Warren, Associate Professor, SOM
- Rebecca Dillingham, Director of the Center for Global Health, SOM
We are adapting the Positive Links (PL), a mobile app that successfully has been utilized for patients living with HIV, to engage COVID-19 patients from the Hispanic Community in self-monitoring, education and connecting with available community services. We have already developed the prototype of the app and need support to pilot test in Hispanic patients diagnosed with COVID-19 through UVA Health. The results of the pilot testing will allow us to modify the mobile app through inputs on ease of use, functionality and utility, from the community volunteers and enrolled participants and apply for external grant to roll out the mobile app in larger scale
A corona comic: the role of evolution in emerging infectious diseases
- Martin Wu, Associate Professor, A&S
- Mercedes Campos-Lopez, Center for Cartoon Studies
As a readily accessible and easily distributable form of communication, comics are a great all-ages resource that can be absorbed by people at all reading levels. Comics of the COVID-19 pandemic have been created to teach the public on the key aspects of pandemic: how the virus causes the disease and is transmitted, the symptoms, how to prevent the spread, and the pandemic’s impact on individuals and the society. Using COVID-19 as an example, this proposed project aims to create a comic book that will help the reader (age 13 and older) understand the role of evolution in emerging infectious diseases and the importance of using evolution as a tool to understand and fight against infectious diseases.