Nokia Siemens Networks

Making a step-change in HIV healthcare

Project Masiluleke aims high to beat AIDS and TB

The ease of use, widespread popularity and personal nature of mobile communications are all being harnessed in an ambitious project that aims to reverse the HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) crises in South Africa and elsewhere.

Called Project Masiluleke, the initiative was launched officially at the annual Pop!Tech conference in October 2008. Pop!Tech is a non-profit organization working to bring about social innovation programs. Its famed annual conference in Maine, USA, gathers the world’s visionary thinkers and movers.

Helpline calls trebled

Already, Project Masiluleke is showing early success. From 1st October 2008, up to a million text-based messages are being sent every day to mobile users in South Africa, inviting them to call a toll-free AIDS helpline for HIV testing advice. The number of inbound calls to the helpline has been trebled and is rising.

The AIDS messages are inserted into the white space in ‘Please Call Me’ (PCM) text messages. With a mobile penetration of 90%, the service is highly popular in South Africa. Up to 30 million PCMs are sent free of charge every day by prepaid mobile users asking other subscribers to call them. PCMs can be sent even when the sender has zero prepaid credit.

The messages are direct and enticing, targeting the personal concerns of individuals. The first message sent was: ‘HIV+ and scared to tell your partner? For info on how to disclose your HIV status, call AIDS Helpline on …’. A different message is being delivered each week, in English and soon, in the local vernacular, such as Zulu.

Overcoming the AIDS stigma

For the first time in the history of HIV, a public health campaign is addressing the needs of the individual, believes Andrew Zolli, curator of the Pop!Tech conference, Fellow of the National Geographic Society, and a driving force behind Project Masiluleke. “We can target communities with messages in the local language, with the right cultural context. The messages are confidential, overcoming the fierce local stigma of AIDS. They target everyone with a mobile phone, overcoming age and cultural barriers.”

Some South African provinces suffer a 40 percent HIV infection rate. Compounding the problem is the world’s highest incidence of TB, which is the leading cause of death of South Africans infected with HIV. Yet only 2 percent of the population has been tested for HIV. If just a small proportion of those receiving these messages go for testing, Project Masiluleke can help more people to be tested in one year than have been tested in the country’s history.

Future ambitions

The ambitions for Project Masiluleke go further still, aiming not just to connect people to care, but to keep them connected. Only 60% of South Africans receiving anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs stay on the treatment for more than two years. Project Masiluleke will deliver well-timed text alerts to patients reminding them when they need to attend their clinic.

The project is also exploring the possibility of training existing HIV+ patients as healthcare counsellors. By equipping them with mobile phones to receive incoming enquiries, they can become ‘virtual call centers’, augmenting the capacity of existing health centers to take calls. Also in the pipeline are plans to deploy low cost, at-home HIV testing with mobile counseling support.

Partners unite to change the world

Project Masiluleke unites a world-class interdisciplinary team of partners in design, mobile technology and healthcare, including, iTeach, Praekelt Foundation, National Geographic, MTN, Nokia Siemens Networks and others.

“We are deeply privileged and gain great credibility by having Nokia Siemens Networks as a partner. The depth of relationships that they bring worldwide help to spread the gospel across world and their deep technical resources will help us to scale this project beyond the first South African deployments. You couldn’t ask for a better partner,” says Zolli.

“It takes a multidisciplinary set of partners to change the world. You need people with on-the-ground healthcare expertise, with design experience and the commitment from MTN and Nokia Siemens Networks to provide the capacity for the team to have the biggest impact.

“We are changing the world one collaboration at a time,” concludes Zolli.