UCAR to help reduce meningitis epidemics

BOULDER – With help from a $900,000 Google Inc. grant, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, or UCAR, plans to start a project this month to help reduce meningitis outbreaks in Africa by providing officials with long-term weather forecasts.

The forecasts are expected to help target vaccination programs to combat the disease that often correlates with dry, dusty conditions.

“Ultimately, we hope to build on this project and provide information to public health programs battling weather-related diseases in other parts of the world,” Rajul Pandya, UCAR’s community building program director, said in a statement.

UCAR is working with African health and weather centers, Meningitis Environmental Risk Information Technologies, various universities and scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Google’s philanthropic organization, Google.org, awarded the $900,000 grant through its Predict and Prevent program that helps determine areas where infectious diseases are rampant, according to a press release.