SMSanté
And there is more ...
We are now focusing on these two types of information but the beauty of our system is that it is flexible and easily adaptable. Therefore, we can provide more information as needs emerge.
Hospital Beds
Where are available beds? We also found that there was no information on the ground regarding availabilities of beds leading to people traveling long distance with sick relatives or neighbors to take them to a hospital, only to realize that there was no bed available. This is why for our first pilot, we will share information on the location of the disease using WHO databases and information on the availabilities of beds in hospitals (first in 2 major hospitals in Conakry and then in the rest of the country).
Accessibility of Data
With SMSanté anyone, anywhere in the world, can use text to access current data about Ebola, like this: A user sends a message with the name of the city she wants information about and she receives a text (in French because our first pilot is in Guinea where French is the official language) telling her if the city she typed in has Ebola cases. During our research phase and thanks to the local knowledge of There Is No Limit Foundation, we found that accessibility to information regarding the location of the disease was missing and thus impacted its spread as people travelled without being informed of potential risks. Add to this that rumors and fears regarding where the disease was spread too - sometimes faster than the virus itself.