World's leading mobile
communications company, Vodafone is harnessing innovative mobile technology by
partnering with GlaxoSmithKline to help vaccinate more children
against common infectious diseases in Africa.
The initial focus
of the new partnership will be a one-year pilot vaccination project in
Mozambique, supported by Save the Children and run in collaboration with the
Mozambique Ministry of Health. If successful, the project will create a model
that can be replicated throughout Mozambique and then scaled across Africa to
reach thousands more children with life-saving vaccination.
“This project aims to establish if mobile
technology solutions could increase the proportion of children covered by
vaccination in Mozambique by an additional 5-10% through helping to encourage
mothers to take up vaccination services, support health workers, improve record
keeping, and enable better management of vaccine stock,” a statement released
by the company said.
Despite major
advances in the funding and availability of vaccines worldwide, it is estimated
that up to a fifth of children worldwide still do not receive basic vaccines.
The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa offers an opportunity to create
innovative and cost-effective ways to address barriers to universal
vaccination.
According to CEO of
GSK, Andrew Witty, said, "Innovative technologies - whether mobile
devices, medicines or vaccines - are helping to transform global health.
Organisations such as UNICEF and GAVI have played a key role in making vaccines
much more accessible in Africa but barriers still exist which stop children
from benefitting from basic immunisation.”
“This new
partnership combines GSK's expertise, knowledge and resources with those of
Vodafone with the potential to deliver life-saving vaccines to tens of
thousands more children in Mozambique. Our hope is that together we will create
a sustainable and scalable model which could ultimately be replicated to help
more children live healthy lives across developing countries."
Vittorio Colao, CEO
of Vodafone, also collaborated that “These partnerships have the potential to
save millions of children's lives in some of the world's poorest countries and
we are delighted to support this critically important endeavour."
The pilot will use
mobile technology to address barriers to increased take-up of vaccines in
Mozambique in three key ways:
- Mothers and caregivers will
be registered on a Mozambique Ministry of Health database and alerted by
SMS to the availability and importance of lifesaving vaccinations against
common childhood diseases. Mothers will be able to schedule vaccination
appointments by SMS and receive notifications of past and future
vaccinations to ensure children complete the full schedule and become
fully immunised.
- Health workers will be
provided withsmartphones with software allowing them to contact mothers,
view and record vaccination histories, schedule vaccinations and report on
follow-up visits.
- Healthcare facilities will
be prompted to regularly report on crucial vaccination stock levels by
SMS. This will enable critical supply chain management and the
availability of vaccines when and where they are needed, particularly in
rural areas.
The pilot will
include up to 100 clinics and will be independently tested to prove its impact,
effectiveness and cost benefits. To ensure open access, the platform will be
available to caregivers across any mobile network and can be used to increase
take-up of any selected vaccine.
Vodafone is one of
the world's largest mobile communications companies. It has experience of
developing commercial mobile health solutions in other African countries: 5,000
clinics across Tanzania currently use Vodafone's mobile stock management
service to track malaria treatments and more than 1,800 remote community
healthcare workers in South Africa are using a mobile solution to access and
update patient records.
On the other hand, GSK
a global healthcare company with a long history in the developing world, have
had its vaccines included in immunisation campaigns in 173 countries worldwide.
Of the 1.1 billion vaccine doses delivered in 2011, 870 million doses (more
than 80%), were shipped for use in developing countries.
Today's
announcement adds to GSK initiatives aimed at using mobile technology to
improve healthcare in Africa,
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