International Journal of

Arts , Humanities & Social Science

ISSN 2693-2547 (Print) , ISSN 2693-2555 (Online)
DOI: 10.56734/ijahss
Diaspora engages social media to reconnect with Africa

Abstract


South Africa has engaged mobile phones to deliver healthcare services (mHealth). Free SMS (short message service) text messages are transmitted to patients and e.Mobile television messages are transmitted on select channels. South Africa enjoys an unequaled mobile technology market in Africa, totaling $25 billion in 2006. Although broadband penetration is expensive, mobile phones have given direct access to healthcare providers who previously lacked access. The South African Health Informatics Association, and the South African Telemedicine Association, provide direction. Mobile technology makes patients’ information readily available to healthcare providers; facilitates training of healthcare workers; permits communication between healthcare providers and patients; assists patients with medication intake; and provides a variety of women’s healthcare services. Another goal of using mobile phone technology for healthcare delivery is to encourage the treatment and testing of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Evaluation of the use of mobile phones in AIDS/HIV has shown improvement in healthcare services and in analyzing patient data in a timely manner. However, illiteracy and software problems have hampered delivery of healthcare services. This paper attempts to trace the milestones that Mobile Health for Community Based Services has followed in using mobile phone technology to deliver healthcare for South Africans. The paper sets out to show the telecommunications infrastructure in South Africa, which places the country in the vanguard in using mobile phones for healthcare delivery. The country became apartheid-free when Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994. Heretofore, blacks were subjected to discrimination under apartheid, which was a white-only minority government. In the article published in The Guradian, “How Nelson Mandela changed the AIDS agenda in South Africa,” Boseley describes the president’s commitment to fight AIDS. Mandela continued the fight for AIDS long after leaving office.