GENEVA — The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), are calling on global telecommunication companies to join their initiative to use information technology to defeat Covid-19.
In a news release issued Monday, the WHO and ITU say they are ready to work with telecom companies to text people directly on their mobile phones with vital health messaging to help protect them from Covid-19. The text messages will reach billions of people that aren’t able to connect to the Internet for information, explains the release.
This initiative builds on current efforts to disseminate health messages through the joint WHO-ITU BeHe@lthy BeMobile project.
The collaboration will start in the Asia Pacific region and then roll out globally, says the release. The goal is to reach everyone with vital health messages, regardless of their connectivity level. An estimated 3.6 billion people remain offline, with most people who are unconnected living in low-income countries, where an average of just two out of every 10 people are online, according to the release.
The Covid-19 pandemic is the first in human history where technology and social media are being used on a massive scale to try to keep people safe, productive and connected while being physically apart, says the release. For example, health workers are using telemedicine to diagnose patients and hospitals rely on being connected to coordinate and triage them. Resilient and trustworthy telecom networks and services are essential, as digital technologies are used more and more by countries, companies and individuals to respond to the impact of Covid-19.
The WHO and ITU say they are committed to identifying and scaling best evidence-based digital health solutions and to leveraging leading-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to diagnose, contain and predict outbreaks better and faster.
Ed note: In Canada, this would likely be something co-ordinated at the local or provincial level. For example, the Alert Ready system has been used by the Ontario government earlier in the pandemic response to urge people to stay home. Also, our wireless companies have worked with the federal government to send important text messages to Canadians abroad. Heck, when it comes to digital health solutions and wireless companies, the ITU and WHO would do well to contact Telus Health.
