Sunday, October 26, 2008

Texts tackle HIV in SOUTH AFRICA

This article could not of been more dead on with our focus in class.

As we all have wished for better health, wealth, and happiness in Africa, South Africans become more diversified in their technology through the use of "texting" with cell phones. In efforts to get tested for HIV, a message is sent to the different cellphones in one of the countries that seems to have the worst problem of HIV. South African project Masilulefe will send one million free text messages a day to push people to be tested and treated. 

With about six million people in South Africa with Aids, "South Africa is the epicentre of the global HIV epidemic," said Zinny Thabethe, an HIV activist who is part of the project.

With every positive a negative is always lurking. The issue with this project is the results from the message. Based on the 5% that have gotten tested, people will only go when they are sitting on their death beds.

The intention to help is there, but it falls on the education of this nation to work on preserving life for future generations.

Check out the article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7688268.stm

5 comments:

PABLO said...

The question i propose to the class is do you think this will help curve the HIV epidemic? How can this be measured on a scale of effective procedures in african globalization?

kshotsberger said...

This is such a great article! Dr. Pitts mentioned how cell phones/ texting are so important to people in Africa. These texts are like the PSAs of cell phones!

To answer Pablo's questions, if and when people come into a clinic in South Africa, maybe they can be surveyed to see how/why they chose to be treated. If they said, "Because I got a text message" then maybe the texts are indeed working. If some research is done, I think the effectiveness of these texts could be determined.

Krystina said...

I really enjoyed this article because i think that Project Masiluleke is a great idea to help initiative some change in South Africa. i was astonished that only 5% of the South African population have gotten tested for Aids but there are 6 million living with Aids on the country.

Using cell phones as an accelerator for changing the countries health situation will be great. I would love to hear how this affects its national numbers on aids testing in the coming years after they being this in December.

To answer Pablo's question is do think that this will help in the long run with the epidemic. i do not think it will stop the spread of Aids but i do think it will help people become more informed and understand the severity of the situation.

Renee Kimpel said...

I think this is a really good way to use technology to help solve major problems. It is a good solution since access to a radio or television is limited in Africa, but mobile phones are more common. It's a good way to get people information about health problems and solutions when they might not have any other way of receiving that information.

I agree that some type of survey would be a good way to measure. I also think that repetition of the messages will make a big difference on the number of responses. I'm not sure how the testing sites are set up now, but they might get better responses if they send out messages to smaller groups of people and mention a specific place to get tested in their area.

ahellgeth said...

Using technology is a great way to get a strong message across to a mass amount of people. The use of text messages offer people to view the message over and over, compared to seeing the message on a commercial or a flyer one time. A text message usually sits in a phones mailbox for a couple of days, allowing that person to go back and view it. I think the message would truly stick with people allowing them to act on it. I agree with Katie, these texts are PSA’s for cell phones. I think a great way of measuring the message would be by surveying every patient, asking where and when they heard about the testing. I think by advertising a health message in a unique way of texting will allow word of mouth to spread.