In the world, over 300 million acute cases of malaria are reported each year which results in more than 1 million deaths. Africa suffers most from this as about 90% of these victims are young children under the age of 5. Furthermore, Malaria constitutes 10% of the continent’s overall disease burden.
Malaria costs an estimated $12 billion in lost productivity in Africa.
Efforts to fight the disease have opened doors to innovative solutions with the aim of curbing it.
SMS for Life
In Tanzania, the Ministry Of Health, Vodafone and Novartis developed a mobile solution that tracks stocks for anti-malarial medicines to avoid stock outs at public health facilities.
The pilot program reached around 888,000 people and within the first weeks stock-outs in health facilities dropped by 75%.
How It Works: automated SMSs are sent to health care staff reminding them to check stocks of anti-malarial drugs. A central database receives responses from the health care staff and health facilities with low stock-levels are re-stocked.
SMS For Life is a finalist for the 2011 GBC AWARDS for Business Action on Health. The GBC Awards for Business Action on Health highlight outstanding company achievements and help set the agenda for the future of the fight to defeat the greatest health threats of our time.
Read more about the 2011 GBC AWARDS for Business Action on Health.