New Weapon In The War Against AIDS: Your Mobile Phone

Abstract

With the growth of mobile technology in the developing world (17.6 billion texts in 2007 to 21 billion texts in 2009 in the African region alone) (Stricher, itnewsafrica.com), experts have proposed healthcare solutions locally and internationally. According to the UNAIDS report, 2.5 million people became newly infected in 2012 and 2.1 million people died of AIDS, making AIDS the lead cause of death in Africa alone (www.unaids.org). Although most organizations recognize the impact of mobile technology, it did not specify how to mobile phones could be used to tackle such a prevalent disease like the HIV/AIDS. Hence my research will establish a culturally adaptable and cost effective theoretical framework for implementing mobile technology to manage HIV in resource limited settings. Second, it will advocate for mobile technology as the tool to tackle the 3 HIV domains of treatment, training and education. Third, it will demonstrate the importance of negotiating the specificities of culture and resources in each setting. This paper therefore seeks to understand both the possibilities and constraints to best establish the tenets of mobile technology design in order to further the movement and inspire future action to tackle the issue of HIV/AIDS.