The app and most of the phones were given by eHealth & Information Systems Nigeria, a Santa Ana. The California-based research company is non-profit and covers strategies in e-health care technology management, e-security issues, and the impacts of e-technologies.
A group of volunteers named EbolaAlert also use Twitter and Facebook to educate Nigerians about the virus.
Google Inc. Nigerian unit arranged teaching meetings for journalists on how to use Google Trends to classify top questions most people needed answered about the illness.
According to Daniel Tom-Aba, senior data manager at the Ebola Emergency Operation Centre in Lagos, the Android app helped to decrease reporting times that would normally take 12 hours by half initially.
Information firstly was written on forms by hand before being sent to databases could be updated immediately, he told.
Adam Thompson, the chief executive officer of eHealth &Information Systems said by phone that with lethal virus time is really very important.
“If there’s a two or three-day lag in order to get a contact to the list, this could be a problem. The person could be in a different country by that point.”
eHealth is providing its app-loaded mobile phones and other tech-based tools to the three worst-hit countries in West Africa: Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
The importance of fast communication is the main lesson in fighting Ebola.
Nigeria confirmed 19 cases with seven confirmed deaths and 12 recoveries, according to the Health Ministry of the country. That’s a 40 percent death rate for a virus that could kill near 90 percent of those who infected.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Clement Ejiofor
Quelle/Source: NAIJ, 10.10.2014
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