'Phones for Health' Campaign Targets AIDS in Africa (2/2)

In addition to Voxiva, other partners include the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started by President Bush, and the GSM Association. This is a trade group that represents more than seven hundred mobile phone operators in 218 countries. MTN, the leading operator in Africa, is another partner in the effort, as are Motorola and the Accenture company.

The chairman of Voxiva, Paul Meyer, says the program will start in Rwanda and Nigeria. It will then spread to eight other countries over the next several years. The campaign is currently working to identify which African countries will be included, he says.

The campaign will work closely with health ministries, international health groups and others. In the future, the Phones for Health program could be expanded further in Africa and to parts of Asia.

Paul Meyer says the technology offers a way for countries to bring together separate information systems for diseases like malaria" class="hjdict" word="malaria" target=_blank>malaria, tuberculosis" class="hjdict" word="tuberculosis" target=_blank>tuberculosis and AIDS. As a result, he says, limited health resources could be used more effectively.