WHO, ITU, UNICEF tackle COVID-19 with information tech

The World Health Organisation, in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union and UNICEF, has unveiled plans to effectively use information technology to win the war against COVID-19.

WHO, in a statement on its website, said it will achieve the feat by working with telecommunication companies to send vital health messages to help protect people from COVID-19, directly to their mobile phones.

“These text messages will reach billions of people that aren’t able to connect to the internet for information,” the world health body said, adding, “Now more than ever, technology must ensure that everyone can access the information they need.

It revealed that the collaboration will start in the Asia Pacific region and then roll out globally, noting that the goal is to reach everyone with vital health messages, whatever their connectivity level.

Explaining further, WHO said the initiative became necessary as an estimated 3.6 billion people remain offline, with most of those unconnected, living in low-income countries, where an average of just two out of every ten people are online.

“ITU and WHO call on all telecommunication companies worldwide to join this initiative to help unleash the power of communication technology to save lives from COVID-19.

“This initiative builds on current efforts to disseminate health messages through the joint WHO-ITU BeHealthy BeMobile initiative.

WHO noted that COVID-19 is the first pandemic in human history where technology and social media are being used on a massive scale to keep people safe, productive and connected while being physically apart.

“Health workers are utilizing telemedicine to diagnose patients and hospitals rely on being connected to coordinate and triage them.

“Resilient and trustworthy telecommunication networks and services are essential, as more countries, companies and individuals turn to digital technologies to respond to and cope with the impact of COVID-19.

“Building on their longstanding collaboration, ITU and WHO are committed to identifying and scaling best evidence-based digital health solutions and to leveraging frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to diagnose, contain and predict outbreaks better and faster, “WHO said.