Prevention on air: An initiative is deploying behavioural change communication to tackle hepatitis

HelpMum offers a vaccination tracker app that allows parents to track their babies’ immunization schedules. Parents can track their child’s vaccination records and see when they’re due for another dose to ensure they’re staying up to date on immunizations.

Accredited social health activists (ASHA) travel throughout Indian villages to combat medical misinformation — specifically among pregnant people — and make public healthcare more accessible. ASHAs connects with over 60% of the women in the villages she serves via WhatsApp, sharing educational videos to avoid the harmful effects of misinformation. As a result, ASHAs have had a massive impact on maternal mortality rates. In 2006, the maternal mortality rate was 254 deaths per 100,000 live births, but in 2020 it dropped to 96 per 100,000 births.

CARE Nigeria created a WhatsApp chatbot in 2022 to combat vaccine misinformation. The chatbot provides parents with real-time answers about childhood immunizations, nearby clinic locations, vaccine schedules and side effects, available 24/7 without judgment. To drive awareness, CARE ran a Facebook advertising campaign from December 2022 to February 2023, reaching 3.6 million people.

Anambra State’s telemedicine program is closing the healthcare access gap in rural communities, making universal health coverage more possible. The program began in 2022 and has since hired and trained 42 doctors in providing remote healthcare. As more people use the telemedicine program, public trust in primary healthcare across the region is increasing.

Technology like chatbots, motion detectors and hotlines are helping prevent overdose deaths, which typically happen when people use alone. The Never Use Alone hotline which was started in 2019 by volunteers with experience using drugs or who have lost someone to an overdose. Since starting, they have received more than 45,000 calls and have called emergency responders about 200 times.

The Beyond Zero Clinic addresses child mortality rates by training and equipping community health promoters (CHPs) with smartphones connected to the Community Health Information System to curb preventable deaths by ensuring children get vaccinated and monitoring disease spread in real-time to ensure children receive timely medical care. During Kenya's 2023 cholera outbreak, CHPs using the digital platform reached 99.2% of the population for vaccination, containing what could have been a widespread epidemic.

Teenspace is a free online therapy program that offers video and text-based mental health support. Nearly 7,000 teens have signed up for the program so far, and 65% of them have reported an improvement in their mental health since connecting to a licensed therapist through the platform.

Two apps, Soluna and BrightLife Kids, provide 24/7, free access to mental health care to young people. The apps include videos, podcasts, self-guided support through interactive content, community forums, chat-based, one-on-one coaching and connections to behavioral health coaches.

The Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network launched a series of mobile response vans that travel to area parks, libraries and neighborhoods to address the community’s growing mental health needs. The vans are intended to more proactively reach people experiencing a mental health crisis and minimize emergency room visits and police confrontations by getting them the appropriate care.

Some people who experience debilitating periods are using hormone therapy as a means to manage or suppress menstruation. These norethisterone tablets can be seen as a tool for reproductive freedom, allowing people to have some control over when and how their body menstruates.