Jessica Guynn

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is taking steps to combat the spread of Zika in Brazil and throughout Latin America.

The Internet giant's philanthropic arm, Google.org, is giving a $1 million grant to UNICEF. The grant is earmarked to raise awareness of the mosquito-borne virus, reduce mosquito populations, develop diagnostics and vaccines and work with communities and governments to prevent disease transmission. Google also has launched a matching campaign for Google employees with the goal of providing an additional $500,000 to UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization.

To map and anticipate the spread of the virus, Google has assigned a team of engineers, data scientists and designers to work with UNICEF to analyze data such as weather and travel patterns. The epidemic, which is spreading at an alarming rate through the Americas, has been linked to a surge in birth defects and in Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological illness. Last month, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency.

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"Ultimately, the goal of this open source platform is to identify the risk of Zika transmission for different regions and help UNICEF, governments and NGO’s decide how and where to focus their time and resources," Google.org director Jacquelline Fuller wrote in a blog post. "This set of tools is being prototyped for the Zika response, but will also be applicable to future emergencies."

In an effort to raise awareness of the virus, Google search has added information about Zika in 16 languages, providing an overview of the virus, symptoms and a public health alert that can be updated with new information. Google says it has seen a more than 3,000% increase in searches on the virus since November. Google has also enlisted popular YouTube creators in Latin America, including Brazilian physician Drauzio Varella, to raise awareness about Zika prevention on their channels.

"Unlike many other global pandemics, the spread of Zika has been harder to identify, map and contain. It’s believed that 4 in 5 people with the virus don’t show any symptoms, and the primary transmitter for the disease, the mosquito Aedes aegypti, is both widespread and challenging to eliminate," Fuller said.

Fighting Zika, she wrote, entails raising awareness about how people can protect themselves and supporting organizations that can drive development of rapid diagnostics and vaccines.

"We also have to find better ways to visualize the threat so that public health officials and NGO’s can support communities at risk," she wrote.