HP, mothers2mothers partner to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Africa

HP recently announced at the Digital Life Design Conference, HP and mothers2mothers (m2m), a South Africa-based non-governmental organisation, announced a new collaboration that will use the power of technology to help prevent the transmission of HIV from HIV-positive pregnant mothers in Africa to their children.

New database technology and cloud and mobile services from HP will convert the current paper-based patient records system into a digital community that enables easy sharing of information across the m2m network of more than 700 sites in sub-Saharan Africa. This more efficient management system will empower counsellors to provide more effective education and support services to pregnant mothers.

The system will provide easy access to up-to-date information on patient treatment plans and advanced reporting tools to provide faster and more effective access to information. This will allow m2m to scale knowledge and best practices across its network.

In the next phase of the programme, m2m employees will be able to collect and share data via basic mobile phones, creating an “always connected” environment. This will enable employees to collect data more efficiently from patients and, over time, will help the operation scale to meet the demands of more patients.

m2m helps to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through an effective, sustainable model of care. Each year, m2m counsels more than 1.5 million women in nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Mothers living with HIV are employed to mentor HIV-positive pregnant and new mothers in health facilities. They work side-by-side with doctors and nurses, supporting and educating women about how to take their medicines and care of themselves and their babies.

“The mothers employed by m2m come from the local communities in which they work, providing a solution to the lack of healthcare providers in Africa. These counsellors help combat the stigma of HIV within the community, empowering the women they counsel and ultimately saving lives.”

Mother-to-child HIV transmission rates remain high in Africa, in part due to the challenge of ensuring mothers' adherence to medical treatment.

Additional facts on the scope of this issue:

There are more than 1.3 million pregnant women living with HIV in Africa.⁽¹⁾ Without any interventions, 40% of those women will have HIV-positive babies.⁽²⁾

Each year, more babies are born with HIV in one busy clinic in Africa than in the United States, Canada and England combined. Worldwide, 1.4 million pregnant women are HIV-positive. Eighty-eight percent of these women live in sub-Saharan Africa.⁽¹⁾

Preventing the transmission of HIV from a mother to a child is straightforward. Its simplest application - a single dose of medication to a mother during labour and a dose to her infant shortly after birth - can cut transmission risk nearly in half.⁽²⁾

The HP global health initiative, a key part of the company's global social innovation programme, aims to enrich society by using the breadth and scale of HP technology to drive structural, systemic improvements in health access and delivery.

HP connects social entrepreneurs and non-profit organisations with access to mobile, cloud and enterprise technology expertise so they can build unique solutions that ultimately save lives.

HP recently announced alliances with African social enterprise mPedigree to fight counterfeit malaria drugs through an innovative mobile phone and cloud services solution, and with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to appreciably improve the speed of HIV diagnosis for infants in Kenya.

“mothers2mothers now helps more than 1.5 million women each year. With technological expertise from HP, we can modernise our paper-based infrastructure to a highly efficient digital model, allowing us to meet the growing demand for our services and put information directly into the hands of our Mentor Mothers. This new system will enable us to serve women much more effectively through improved knowledge and insight,” said Gene Falk, co-founder and chief executive officer, mothers2mothers.

“Global health is one of the last frontiers for IT transformation and holds immense promise for significant improvement to the quality of care available through the appropriate application and use of technology. With mothers2mothers' rich understanding of health challenges in Africa, we can transform the lives of women in Africa and provide greater hope in winning the fight against HIV/AIDS,” said Frank van Rees, Country Managing Director and HP Enterprise Business Lead, South Africa.

Images of the mothers2mothers facilities
HP Data Central contributed blog post by Gene Falk, CEO and co-founder, mothers2mothers
Video: Gabriele Zedlmayer discusses HP's Office of Global Social Innovation
Video interview with Gene Falk, mothers2mothers