'Phones for Health' campaign targets AIDS in Africa

新闻背景：在如今的非洲大陆上，固定线路的电话和网络连接十分稀少，因此，在治理艾滋病等疫情的过程中，绝大部分非洲健康工作者不得不借助落后的纸笔记录方式来记录病情。此项名为“手机健康”的计划主要通过在标准化的摩托罗拉手机中安装特殊软件，从而使得健康工作者可以通过手机直接发送艾滋病等疫情的信息。

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Recently we talked about Voxiva, a provider of information technology systems for health workers in poor countries. This Washington-based company has been working for three years with the government of Rwanda. Voxiva created a system that uses mobile phones and other devices for health workers to report and share information on HIV/AIDS.

That same technology will now be used in a wider effort to fight the deadly virus in other African countries. A campaign launched by a partnership¹ of public and private organizations aims to use cell phones to improve HIV/AIDS care.

The ten-million-dollar campaign is called "Phones for Health." Health workers will use mobile phones loaded with special software to enter information into a central computer system. The workers will also be able to use the Motorola handsets to receive treatment guidelines, order medicines and get training materials.

Phones for Health was announced in February at the GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. GSM is the global system for mobile communications, a cellular² technology used for voice and data services.

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 ministries³, 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 malaria⁴, tuberculosis⁵ and AIDS. As a result, he says, limited health resources could be used more effectively.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss⁶. Transcripts⁷ and audio archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus.