Some of the biggest names in the worldwide mobile phone industry and the USA government have joined hands, put down the money and decided to help about 10 countries from Africa to fight against HIV/AIDS and some other health challenges people have to deal with on a daily basis.

The "Phones-for-Health" project they started working on is a 10 million $ public-private partnership that brings together the technology companies, the mobile phone operators and the device manufacturers to use the increasing cellphone coverage in Africa to strengthen the health systems.

Dr. Howard Zucker, assistant director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), has declared during the 3GSM congress in Barcelona, that "the explosive spread of mobile phone networks across the developing world has created a unique opportunity to significantly transform how countries can tackle global health challenges".

The project is building on an already successful deployment in Rwanda and is intended to be extended, beyond the first 10 countries that will take part in this experiment, in an yet undecided number of African and Asian countries that deal with large scale tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases spreading.

The "Phones-for-Health" program uses a software installed on a standard Motorola cellphone which allows the health workers, while on the field, to access health information from a central database in real time. The data will be transmitted using a GPRS connection or, if this type of data transfer technology is not yet available, through an SMS channel specially designed to deal with such requests.

"The roll out of this health management software in Africa will clearly demonstrate how governments can exploit the expanding mobile infrastructure to enhance the well-being of their citizens", said Ambassador Mark Dybul, U.S. Global Aids Coordinator. "People living with HIV/Aids in the developing world deserve high-quality treatment and care, and this innovative partnership will ensure that health workers and program managers get the timely and relevant information they need, even when they serve patients in the most remote areas".