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How Cell Phones Are Transforming Health Care in Africa
In a little over a decade, Africa has gone from a region with virtually no fixed-line telecoms infrastructure to a continent where one in six of the billion inhabitants now owns a cell phone. But as this mass adoption of technology continues to gather momentum, it is causing a fundamental shift that goes beyond merely connecting people; it is creating one of the largest, low-cost distributed sensor networks we’ve ever seen, one which has the potential to completely transform global health care.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Growing disease burden to drive pharma boom in Nigeria, Africa
Huge opportunities are in the offing for local drug manufacturers including Fidson Healthcare plc GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer Nigeria and East Africa region (NEAR), Evans Medicals, Swipha, and Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, to grow their revenues on the back of recent surge in non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Why Motorcycles are Critical to Health in Rural Africa
The motorcycle. Even though from an early age I was fascinated by the engineering, it has always meant fun and freedom. That is until 25 years ago, when my husband Barry and I started Riders for Health.Barry had always had a similar interest in the incredibly perfect technology that is the motorcycle and its engine. And we founded Riders for Health to concentrate on the efficient running of this technology to deliver health care to millions of people living in communities in rural Africa.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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A ‘fishy’ way to prevent dengue
The Asian Development Bank and the World Health Organization have found their latest weapon against dengue-carrying mosquitoes: larvae-eating guppy fish. A recent trial study in select villages in Cambodia and Laos found out dengue cases can be significantly reduced by putting the fish in water tanks and containers near the stagnant water areas where the insects thrive especially during the rainy season.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
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The toughest job in Nigerian healthcare
Midway through our interview the power cuts and the room is thrown into darkness. We are at Nigeria's National Primary Healthcare Development Agency to talk to its chief executive about the issues facing his nation – and sporadic electricity supply is just one. Dr Ado Jimada Gana Muhammad has arguably the toughest job in Nigerian healthcare.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Dispatches from the Field: Transforming Breast Cancer Care in Rural Africa
To a Ugandan woman, “a diagnosis of breast cancer is like a death sentence,” explains Kristen DeStigter, MD, Vice Chair of the Department of Radiology at Fletcher Allen. Breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer in Ugandan women, with more than 75 percent of patients diagnosed with stage III or stage IV cancer. DeStigter, the co-founder of Imaging the World (ITW), hopes her program can change that. ITW brings ultrasound training, technology, and telemedicine to rural parts of low-income countries, and promises cost-effective, sustainable breast cancer detection, remote diagnosis, and greater breast cancer awareness.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Millennium Development goals in rural Africa get $100 million boost
In 2011, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Earth Institute (Columbia University) formed a partnership to work with African nations to support their efforts to end extreme poverty. On Tuesday, the IsDB and the Earth Institute and its partner, Millennium Promise, announced that the IsDB and its poverty reduction arm, the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), have now extended more than $100 million in financing to help eight African nations combat extreme poverty, improve public health and achieve more sustainable development.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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New Hospital Chain in India Brings Fresh Approach: Jeevanti looking to improve quality, availability and affordability of secondary health care
Jeevanti aspires to create a chain of 25 50-bed, secondary-care, multi-specialty hospitals in small, underserved cities in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The two existing hospitals currently offer gynecology and obstetrics, pediatrics, general medicine and surgery, and served 30,000 people between March 2012 and July 2013.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
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