In Developing World, Health Services May Be Just a Phone Call Away
30 июля 2013

In Developing World, Health Services May Be Just a Phone Call Away

In Developing World, Health Services May Be Just a Phone Call Away
This is the VOA Special English Development Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | facebook.com/voalearningenglish Sending and receiving money by text message. Sharing crop prices. Just talking to a loved one far from home. These are some of the ways that mobile phones have changed lives in developing countries. Another way is through e-health, electronic health services. One example is a telephone hotline in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Callers can receive information about family planning and the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. They are able to speak privately with trained operators about birth control methods and about health clinics. The nonprofit group Population Services International and a partner launched the service in two thousand five. The United States Agency for International Development finances the program. And an agreement with the Vodacom company makes the service free to callers. We talked with Jamaica Corker, on her cell phone, at the Population Services International office in the D.R.C. She said: "The hotline has given us an opportunity to take advantage of cell phone technology, to reach people outside of our intervention zone with family planning messaging. The hotline allows them to call in no matter where they are and to ask us the information that we can provide." Jamaica Corker says more than twenty thousand people called the hotline in two thousand eight. More than eighty percent were men. She says this is mainly because men own most of the phones. The group also has family planning hotlines in Benin and Pakistan. And it is launching a mobile phone program to gather records on condom sales around Tanzania. The journal Health Affairs recently published an issue on "E-Health in the Developing World." Editor Susan Dentzer says e-health is improving lives in different ways. For example, in Rwanda cell phone-based technologies are being used to keep track of drugs given to patients with H.I.V. Rwanda is at the leading edge of developing nations in using these technologies to advance health and health care. In South Africa, a campaign of text messages about H.I.V. led to a large increase in calls to the national AIDS helpline. And a program in Peru sends text messages to patients with H.I.V., reminding them to take their medicines. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. Tell us about e-health services where you are. You can share ideas and find our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 03May10)
Благодаря видео In Developing World, Health Services May Be Just a Phone Call Away можно просто изучить английский язык.