VOA标准英语2013--Texting Becomes a Health Tool in Kenya
时间：2019-01-14 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2013年(四月)
Texting Becomes a Health Tool in Kenya
Mobile phone use in Africa has spread far, wide and fast. By the end of last year, it was estimated that 70 percent of the population would have a mobile phone. Now, the International Federation 1 of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says it’s using the technology to save lives.
In Kenya, the IFRC has developed the Rapid Mobile Phone-based survey, otherwise known as RAMP 2. It allows the medical aid group to learn a lot about the health of people in remote, rural communities in very little time.
Jason Peat, the senior health officer for malaria 3, says the idea for the survey came from IFRC volunteers.
“There are volunteers using those mobile phones to communicate. They’re doing it two ways. They’re using them as a regular phone, but more often than not we see them use the phones to send text messages back and forth 4 because they’re a very inexpensive way to communicate. Red Cross volunteers and other community health workers at a very local level were already figuring out a way to manage activities, to manage programs and not just health programs, but all programs using mobile phones,” he said.
Volunteers use RAMP to collect data on such things as antenatal and newborn care, immunizations, malaria, pneumonia 5, diarrhea and other health issues. Peat says the mobile phone survey has sharply reduced costs. It’s 10 times cheaper compared to the old clipboard method. And it saves a lot of time.
“It’s incredibly quick,” said Peat, “I mean we have a data bulletin in 24 hours, where it took us months to generate a data bulletin before. And we can have a written report within three days. I mean to be straight, it requires a person sitting behind a computer and putting in a full day. But in all the RAMPS 6 we’ve done to date, we’ve had a data bulletin out in 24 hours and we’ve had the first draft of the survey report out in three days.”
The faster the information is gathered, the faster the response.
“This tool allows us very quickly to get to the root of the issue. It allows us to say immediately these are where we have problems. These are where we want to change the health indicators 7. And this tool gives us that data and the nice thing about it is you can monitor progress very quickly,” he said.
The World Health Organization and top epidemiologists helped the Red Cross develop RAMP. The mobile phone survey is being used to help Kenya and other African countries reach the Millennium 8 Development Goals on health. The target date for the MDGs is 2015.
- It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
- Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。
- That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
- The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。
- He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
- Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。
- The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
- He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
- Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
- Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。
- Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。
- He has the upper floor and ramps are fitted everywhere for his convenience. 他住在上面一层，为了他的方便着想，到处设有坡道。
- The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
- It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。
- The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
- We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。