The Sub-Saharan Africa remains by far the most-affected region with
HIV and AIDS, with 25.4 million people living with HIV at the end of 2004.
National Governments and NGOs are trying to approach the problem
from many angles using different types of interventions. However, scarcity of
qualified staff (particular in rural areas) in schools, health centers and
hospitals, long distances, cultural beliefs, gender relations and difficult
terrains are major problems in fighting the epidemic. In addition, stigma and
discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS present a barrier to access
quality health care and treatment. It also minimizes the possibilities for
sharing experiences and seeking support from peers. In some cases, the
stigma on HIV/AIDS is paralysing policy development and political decision
on national level.
ICT plays a pivotal role in ensuring timely and speedy diagnosis as well
as in improving and securing the quality of health care in most medical
disciplines. ICT also offers the option of remote, distant delivery of an
increasing number of public health care services, despite physical distances
and time zones existing between patients and health care providers.
With the Internet, a platform for communication and information
sharing is put in place for groups of people with a particular interest. For
people living with HIV/AIDS specific services such as HIV/AIDS newsgroups
and forums, data bases with contents on HIV/AIDS in the local languages can
be made available. The people will be able to share and exchange
experiences with peers, social and health care workers and be in a better
position to gain control over their life.
ICT enhances access to HIV/AIDS information. Recent advancements
in ICT in relation to public health, education and public (Internet based)
networking provide a growing arsenal of instruments (in terms of ICT based
interventions) for combating HIV/AIDS and for mitigating the effects of the
epidemic. Ongoing and planned HIV/AIDS initiatives may be boosted by
improving capacities for communication and information processing and
dissemination through innovative use of ICTs. The focus of these HIV/AIDS
initiatives may vary from creating awareness and prevention to strengthening the provision of health care services and the setting up of research networks and resources for monitoring the epidemic.
Sida is exploring the opportunities for using ICT for mitigating HIV/AIDS in
Southern Africa. In February 2005, a study was started with the aim to explore the opportunities for using ICTs in mitigating HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa. This study focused on three countries, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique.
The study was aimed at finding answers to how ICTs could contribute to the empowerment of people living with HIV/AIDS and how they could be used to improve ongoing and planned HIV/AIDS programs in the region.
The study has been carried out through a participatory approach in which the
stakeholders involved in the process of mitigating HIV/AIDS have been asked
to bring in their experiences, views, suggestions and ideas on how ICT can
be used for mitigating HIV/AIDS.
The answer of the stakeholder meetings on how ICT can improve ongoing
and planned HIV/AIDS programs was that ICT can be instrumental for
documenting and sharing experience and knowledge on HIV/AIDS, for
improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisations involved, for
coordinating, monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and
treatment programs and for monitoring of the epidemic.
The basic conditions outlined at the stakeholders meeting for effectively using ICT for mitigating HIV/AIDS and for boosting HIV/AIDS initiatives include availability of basic infrastructure such as media, tele- and/ or data
communication and electricity supply; capacities in place for utilizing, operating and maintaining the applied technologies; capacity development among target audiences (including CBOs, NGOs and ASOs); and capacity development on the production of accurate, relevant and contextualised information on HIV/AIDS and other health and development issues in local languages.
Though the ground situations in each of these countries vary, some of the interventions proposed by these meetings include setting up of Community Access Points (CAPs) in Zambia and Mozambique, to be a combination of knowledge centre, tele-centre and local ICT service provider; to develop and implement a system for distance consultations improve the logistic support for the distribution of drugs; support research on expert systems (a system, which supports health workers to diagnosis and treat clients) for health clinics and facilitate the process of awareness and vision building on how ICT can be used.
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