Innovative Technologies for Development Foundation Launches Ebola Prevention App

Editor’s Note:

As several efforts are constantly needed to combat the spread of Ebola in West Africa,the Innovative Technologies for Development Foundation Nigeria has launched this App to help educate more people and also prevent the spread of this deadly scourge. Akinmade Akintoye, CTO of CloudWare Technologies contributes this article:

 

 

The visit of Patrick Sawyer to Nigeria and the consequent spread of the deadly Ebola virus that has been ravaging the country, has challenged a lot of assumptions about the state of the nation’s ability to respond to natural emergencies. One of the more significant revelations is the appalling level of ignorance in the country.

Recently, there was a nationwide apprehension-driven misinformation in Nigeria that led to the death of many people and put more than twenty in the hospital for complications due to excessive consumption of salt. the Ebola salt-cure rumor apparently started as a regular prank on social media, but unfortunately it got wider circulation both online and offline due to the high level of anxiety and hope prevalent in Nigeria, that a cure be found soon. Also some cases of youth dismissing the existence of Ebola Virus Disease in Liberia.

However, fundamentally, the root cause of the overwhelming rate of the circulation of the rumor was the absence of readily available and relevant information on the Ebola virus and disease, that could be used as verification for whatever new information is released into the public domain.

In response to the salt-cure rumor in Nigeria, the ignorance in some other parts of West Africa that is affected by this deadly disease, and as a preventive measure against any re-occurrence of any such rumor circulation, Innovative Technologies for Development Foundation (IT4D) a Nigerian Based Not for Profit organisation has designed an application that can detect the presence of Ebola Virus Disease in any location and help you prevent the disease even while you are in that area. In addition to detecting if an area is affected by Ebola virus disease, it also delivers relevant information and updates concerning the Ebola virus and disease regularly to the users’ mobile phone.

The effort in developing the app is coordinated by Akinmade Akintoye, CTO of CloudWare Technologies the company behind the development of the Technology behind the Ebola detection and prevention initiative, and a team of volunteers from all over the world. The development team is working in conjunction with International medical experts, medical practitioners, technology experts and researchers. The team is also poised to providing the app users with continually updated knowledge on the medical advancements in the development of the cure to the disease. The app provides qualitative and quantitative information on the governmental involvements in combating the disease.

The Ebola Prevention Mobile Application, is at the moment available for Free on the Android Play store ,and also as an SMS-based application available on CloudSMS Appstore.  Blackberry, J2me and IOS versions are currently being developed. When users of the App are in proximity to affected regions, the app can inform you of which areas are affected and provide you with preventive measures to ensure they do not get infected during your stay in the affected area.

This Ebola-prevention initiative is Innovative Technologies for development Foundation’s (IT4D) contribution towards the prevention and containment of communicable diseases in the African region and the world at large. IT4D is the NGO behind NigeriaDecide.org, a crowd sourced platform for the electorate to use mobile phones to prevent election rigging in Nigerian Elections.

 

Important Links

Website to download the Ebola Prevetion App: www.ebolaprevention.org

Twitter @preventebola

Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ebola-Prevention/1468739093389685

Google+ Page https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/114586365555197046918

Blog http://blog.ebolaprevention.org/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloudware-technologies

Android App link:       https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ebolaapp.android

SMS App link:       http://appstore.cloudsms.com.ng/subscribe.php?app=EbolaPrevention