GSK partners Vodafone in Africa vaccination project

GlaxoSmithKline, the global healthcare company, has formed a partnership with Vodafone to harness innovative mobile technology to help vaccinate more children against common infectious diseases in Africa. The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa offers an opportunity to create innovative and cost-effective ways to address barriers to universal vaccination.

The initial focus of the new GSK-Vodafone partnership will be a one-year pilot vaccination project in Mozambique, supported by Save the Children and run in collaboration with the Mozambique Ministry of Health.

This project aims to establish whether mobile technology solutions could increase the proportion of children covered by vaccination in Mozambique by an additional five to 10 per cent. It aims to help to encourage mothers to take up vaccination services, support health workers, improve record keeping, and enable better management of vaccine stock.

If successful, the project will create a model that can be replicated throughout Mozambique and then scaled across Africa to reach thousands more children with life-saving vaccination.

“This partnership combines GSK’s expertise, knowledge and resources with those of Vodafone with the potential to deliver life-saving vaccines to tens of thousands more children in Mozambique. Our hope is that we will create a sustainable and scalable model which could ultimately be replicated to help more children live healthy lives across developing countries,” GSK chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said.

Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao added that such partnerships have the potential to save millions of children’s lives in some of the world’s poorest countries and we are delighted to support this critically important endeavour.”

The pilot will include up to 100 clinics and will be independently tested to prove its impact, effectiveness and cost benefits.

Source: http://www.timesofmalta.com