Getting critical drugs to patients in need is made easier with new technology.

The challenge of pediatric AIDS:

In resource-poor and remote settings, it's very difficult to provide comprehensive prevention and treatment services to HIV-positive women and their children.

Many HIV-positive pregnant women do not receive all the medications and treatment services they need to stay healthy and to prevent passing the virus to their children, due to:

• Lack of access to health information
• High rates of home births
• Distance to treatment facilities
• Lack of access to follow-up care

Without the complete package of health care services, many women are still passing the HIV virus to their children. We need to overcome these obstacles in order to protect these children and end pediatric AIDS.

The innovation for pediatric AIDS:

The rapid expansion of mobile phone coverage in Africa presents an opportunity to improve services to women and children in resource-poor settings by using technology that is already available.

The innovative use of mobile phones can give women access to information, health advice, visit and medication reminders, and direct communication with community health workers.

Mobile phones can provide an increase in access to health information, which will:

• Allow rapid transfer of laboratory results to peripheral clinics,
• Support care provider training, and
• Improve HIV prevention, early diagnosis, and adherence support.

SMS (text messages) offer a low-cost, efficient, and relatively unobtrusive method for strengthening information exchange between individuals. Rapid SMS service also assists community health workers in communication with pregnant women to support them through every stage of pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postnatal follow-up.

Innovative use of mobile phone technology will improve the delivery and uptake of critical medicines and services required to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

The Foundation began an HIV/AIDS program in Kenya in 2000, which has expanded from a small, privately-funded prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) initiative to a much larger prevention, care, and treatment program. Working with the Ministry of Health, the Foundation has become one of the nation's largest HIV/AIDS program partners.

As of September 30, 2010, as partner in the APHIA II projects, the Foundation has provided PMTCT services to more than 770,000 pregnant women; provided HIV counseling and testing services to more than 707,000 pregnant women; provided more than 27,000 pregnant women living with HIV with medicines to help prevent HIV transmission; enrolled more than 67,000 clients into HIV care and support programs; and started more than 27,000 individuals on antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS, including more than 2,700 children under the age of 15.

The Foundation also has established counseling and psychosocial support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS at the facility and community level as part of our APHIA II projects and Zingatia Maisha projects.

(*Data cumulative from program start in 2006/7 through September 30, 2010)