The GLOBE Mission Mosquito Campaign: A Citizen Science Campaign to Forecast and Prevent Zika

Funding Zika programs advances the U.S. government’s diplomatic and health security objectives to improve the capacity of countries to combat mosquito-borne diseases, while also advancing public diplomacy objectives related to civil society engagement and public participation in vector control efforts. Through the support of the U.S. Department of State, the GLOBE Program is leading the GLOBE Zika Education and Prevention citizen scientist project (globe.gov/mosquitoes). The project is a global initiative to enlist thousands of students, teachers, and community leaders to collect data on mosquitoes for a global mapping project. Between May and June 2018, GLOBE trained over 110 Country Coordinators and Master Trainers in more than 65 countries on the Mosquito Habitat Mapper App and on how to engage their countries in this project through national and local workshops.

The GLOBE Mission Mosquito Campaign promotes data collection by citizen scientists through a bundle of mosquito-related protocols (air and water temperature, precipitation). In this presentation, we will show how this data is being used in conjunction with NASA satellite data as early warning systems and for forecasting transmission risks of Zika and other mosquito-borne infectious diseases. We will also present the impacts of the Mission Mosquito to date.