Cambodia is trying to contain the spread of malaria by using
text messaging to report the disease in real time.
Mobile devices are installed with "FrontlineSMS,"
an open-source software, allowing volunteers to send and receive malaria
reports via text. The data is sent to the Malaria Information and Alert System
in Phnom Penh and fed into a national database using Google Earth.
Mobitel, Cambodia's largest telecom, provides free SIM cards
and SMSs, making the system cost-effective and easy to maintain.
"My work is definitely easier," said Sophana Pich,
one of the estimated 3,000 village workers in the country's fight against
malaria. Before mobile phones were part of the program, she said it took a
month before the information gathered arrived at the district health level.
"Without doubt, this is an important tool to quickly
identify malaria cases and respond effectively," said Pengby Ngor, data
manager for the Malaria Consortium, an NGO.
The Cambodian government aims to eliminate malaria in the
next 15 years.
The program is part of a larger $22.5 million malaria
containment effort launched by the government in 2009 in cooperation with the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Volunteers receive three days of training
to learn to diagnose early-stage malaria. In addition, they receive bicycles,
boots, bags, flashlights and cooler boxes for medicine, plus a small travel
allowance.
The pilot program is making progress but key challenges
remain. While general malaria rates are falling, Cambodia reported an increased
incidence of multi-drug resistant viruses. Researchers must work quickly to
track, isolate, and combat these and other more dangerous strains before they
spread and set back the early gains.
Another group, part of the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation's Grand Challenge competition, is zapping mosquitoes before they can
bite and spread diseases like malaria. "Emosquitonet,"
plays music that resonates with dengue fever-carrying mosquitoes, causing them
to vibrate uncontrollably before losing direction and crashing.
Mobile phones in Africa combat the malaria problem from a
different angle as well. Kenyan health workers use mobile devices to send text message reminders to
patients twice a day for a six month period to help them take their medicine,
noting a 25 percent improvement rate over other programs.
The Kenyan health workers' reminders are crucial for a full
recovery since incomplete drug treatments often lead to drug-resistant strains.
In addition to helping the patient recover, this program, like the Cambodia
one, prevents new drug-resistant strains from developing.
About 3.3 billion people, or half the world's population,
are at risk of malaria. Every year, this leads to about 250 million malaria
cases and nearly one million deaths. People living in the poorest countries are
the most vulnerable, according to the World Health Organization.
