Report
A 2009 Economist special report examined how mobile phones are letting developing countries leapfrog straight to more personalised healthcare, even in places with little clean water or reliable access to clinics. Bill Gates, who once doubted that gadgets could meaningfully help the world’s poorest, told the magazine that ‘poor people absolutely deserve better technology’, pointing to his foundation’s heavy investment in vaccines and drug research alongside mobile health innovation. The report focuses on KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, home to one of the world’s highest HIV infection rates, where stigma keeps roughly four in five infected people from ever visiting a clinic for testing, and profiles Project Masiluleke, an SMS initiative co-founded by HIV patient Zinhle Thabethe to encourage more South Africans to get tested despite that stigma.