Texting can sometimes save lives. In Rwanda, the program RapidSMS allows since 2012 to follow the progress of pregnancies and the baby health until they are two years old, thanks to a network of 45,000 volunteer health workers across the country. The principle is simple: the agents follow the women of a given village, and send the information to the Ministry of Health by extremely short text messages. Thus, the message “PRE” for “Pregnant” warns the authorities of a new pregnancy. Likewise, “NP” for “No Problem” indicates that the mother or the baby are well, according to AFP. Software automatically links these messages to a database where information on the health of mother and child is recorded.
Reduce infant mortality
The goal: better monitoring of pregnancies to limit complications. “We can easily find the names of women who have high-risk pregnancies, for example those who have had repeated miscarriages or who have had gynecological surgery.“, explains François Hakizimana, responsible for community health in Murambi (Rwanda) to AFP. The RapidSMS program also makes it possible to sensitize pregnant women”so that they can go to the nearest health facility as soon as they see the slightest problem“, emphasizes François Hakizimana. Ultimately, RapidSMS would reduce the perinatal and infant mortality, and could already have contributed to the improvement of the figures. The number of deaths linked to childbirth is indeed on the decline, as Margaret Chan, regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO), underlined during her opening remarks at the 69th World Health Assembly : “we can celebrate the 19,000 fewer children who die each day and the 44% drop in maternal mortality“.
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