Mobile phone text messaging service allows health workers to track malaria cases in Cambodia

A new pilot project in Cambodia is allowing more than 3,000 volunteer health workers to use a special mobile phone text messaging service to report new cases of malaria, in addition to providing no-cost testing and treatment "in remote parts of the impoverished nation, where access to health services can be difficult," Agence France-Presse reports. When a person tests positive for malaria, health workers begin them on treatment immediately and send a text message with the patient's age, gender, type of malaria, and location "to the district health center, provincial health officials and a national malaria database in the capital Phnom Penh -- a process that used to take a month," AFP notes. "The information is also fed into Google Earth to create a map of reported cases and of potential hotspots of [malaria drug] resistance," a problem in western Cambodia, according to the news service. "Together, the data helps officials track each case and make sure the right treatment is available or that more medication is supplied when stocks are running low," AFP writes, adding, "Some 230 volunteers have used the mobile phone service so far and there are plans to eventually include all volunteers in the project," which is being implemented by the Malaria Consortium (Se, 9/17).