In Brazil, Data Saves Lives
Small clusters of illness can explode into health crises if they go unnoticed. The Rockefeller Foundation is working with Brazilian health officials to make sure that doesn’t happen through our support for the Alert-Early System of Outbreaks with Pandemic Potential (ÆSOP) — a data system to catch outbreaks before they spiral out of control. Researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro developed the system to give health professionals a fighting chance against infectious diseases that spread rapidly through vulnerable populations. The results are staggering: ÆSOP has helped prevent 86 outbreaks from becoming full-scale crises.
Here’s how:
- Integrated Data Surveillance: The system monitors and analyzes diverse data sources, like health records, clinical visits, pharmacy sales, and social media, to identify unusual trends.
- Targeted Detection: The project focuses on anomaly detection to identify unexpected surges, such as respiratory illnesses outside of normal seasons.
- Technological Approach: ÆSOP leverages AI to analyze data streams and creates risk maps that combine environmental, social, and transportation data to narrow down likely routes of disease spread.
- Early Warning and Action: Once a potential outbreak is identified, ÆSOP provides warnings to local health authorities, who can verify the threat and coordinate timely public health measures in the field, when necessary.
- Scalability: Following a successful pilot in Amazonas in 2024, Brazil’s largest state by land area, and subsequent implementation in three other states in 2025, the Ministry of Health provided financing to expand ÆSOP to 14 additional states in 2026 while continuing to improve the system, building the path for scalability and future sustainability. By the end of 2026, ÆSOP is expected to monitor nearly 75% of Brazilian municipalities.
ÆSOP and data-driven initiatives inform the Foundation’s expanding health work, particularly our mission to keep people safe despite climate change’s mounting health threats. The project also shows the Foundation’s catalytic role in backing local innovation early, helping prove what works, and unlocking government investment to scale it through public health systems.
ÆSOP in action
A health worker at the Amazonas Health Surveillance foundation (FVS-AM) uses the ÆSOP platform
ÆSOP in action
A health worker at the Amazonas Health Surveillance foundation (FVS-AM) uses the ÆSOP platform
Early detection is critical to mitigating public health impacts. The initiative strengthens a more coordinated and timely surveillance network, better prepared to face emerging health threats, especially in areas with greater epidemiological vulnerability.