Battling Coronavirus

Coronavirus is currently the most significant outbreak, which first began in Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019. Ever since, the virus has been spreading fast on a worldwide scale. Most people who become infected experience mild illness and recover, but it can be more severe for others.

Leading company in China, Alibaba has created a device that can detect COVID-19 viruses in the human body. With 96% accuracy and within seconds, it can determine whether a person is infected or not.

What is coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses. Some cause illness in people, and others, such as canine and feline, only infect animals. It happens very rarely that coronaviruses among animals affect people, but now this is considered to be the case.

It is spreading rapidly from person to person. The infection has been reported worldwide, with more than 98% of the cases in China.

The new device

Alibaba is the largest IT group in China and can also be known as the Amazon of China. But it is more than just an e-retailer. The company has developed artificial intelligence, that can detect the new virus in a fast and reliable way.

The algorithm’s diagnosis was developed by Alibaba’s research institute Damo Academy, according to Asian Nikkei Review.

The AI model was trained with data from more than 5,000 cases. The system could identify differences from scans between patients infected with the novel virus and those with ordinary viral pneumonia.

The diagnostic tool was firstly introduced in the Qiboshan Hospital in Zhengzhou, Henan province. It would also be adopted in more than 100 hospitals in the region of Hubei, Guangdong, and Anhui.

Usually, it would take from 15-30 minutes for a doctor to determine whether a patient is infected or not. The new algorithm can take off the pressure on hospitals and complete the diagnosis process in a few seconds, according to Alibaba.

Battling the virus

Another rival healthcare company Ping An has recently announced a very similar system. Geoff Kau, the Co-President of the organization, announced:

“Since its launch, the smart image-reading system has provided services to more than 1,500 medical institutions. More than 5,000 patients have received smart image-reading services for free. The system can generate smart analysis results in around 15 seconds, with an accuracy rate above 90%.”

To ensure that patients with clinical symptoms receive treatment as soon as possible, the Chinese National Health Commission widened the criteria for the diagnosis of new infections. The CT scan results were added on top of the previous nucleic acid test method.

After all, the more solutions – the better. Since there is no guaranteed way of treatment so far, the only way to prevent the illness is by avoiding exposure to the coronavirus.

These AI devices are beginning to find their implementation in the clinical sector more and more. Now they are getting us closer to battling the spread of the virus and helping us in the process of better outcomes.