Decoding the Zika Virus

Dr. David Walton, as director of Global Health for Thoughtworks, leads a team of about 100 people who leverage their expertise in technology and software while working with health organizations to improve healthcare delivery for those who are poor and marginalized. The focus of this group is to abate health disparities through the use of technology solutions best suited to the environment.

He has played a huge part in Haiti's earthquake relief and cholera response. Not just that, he spent the first four months of 2015 in Sierra Leone playing several roles to combat the devastating impacts of the Ebola virus on the country. Dr. Walton served as a Clinical Advisor treating patients and as a Clinical Director developing the first tablet-based open source Ebola Virus Disease clinical care software. He also served as District Director with Partners in Health to strengthen health systems and prevent future epidemics in Sierra Leone.

More recently, Dr. Walton was included in GOOD Magazine’s 2016 GOOD 100 list. In its fifth year, the list captures 100 people who are improving the world through creativity and innovation and includes honorees from 37 countries across categories such as health, earth, justice & equality, spaces, information and stories.

With the recent rise of the Zika epidemic across countries around the world, we interviewed Dr. Walton to understand more about the precipitous spread of the virus. In this podcast, Dr. Walton helps decode what we need to know about the virus - its origin, its various symptoms and manifestations, possible remedial measures that we can take as citizens of the world and also the limited role that technology can play in containing this deadly virus.

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