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KidzAlive – the app helping healthcare workers better assist HIV positive children

Keep A Child Alive (KCA) and Zoë-Life are using technology to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

In collaboration with Qualcomm they have developed and launched the KidzAlive Talk Tool App, which gives specifically designed education to children and adolescents, as well as equip healthcare workers with the support they need to interact with them.  

According to KCA, the app caters to three local languages and can be used to engage children via an animated journey of a frog named Sibusiso, as he goes for HIV testing, learns his positive status and comes to understand the importance of sticking with his treatment.

“The KidzAlive Talk Tool App demonstrates a creative and effective way to use mobile technology to improve health services and involve communities in HIV prevention and treatment,” said executive chairman and CEO of KCA, Antonio Ruiz-Giménez Jr.

The organisation said that the app was piloted by 33 healthcare workers at private and government healthcare facilities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, where it was found to have a significant amount of success.

Dr Stephanie Thomas, executive director at Zoë-Life, added that the health workers have seen a 62 percent increase in confidence and competence in providing age appropriate counselling and care for HIV exposed and infected children.

“At Qualcomm we believe that advanced mobile technologies have a great role to play in improving access to healthcare services, lowering costs and increasing efficiencies,” added senior director of Government Affairs for Africa and the Middle East, Elizabeth Migwalla.

The KidzAlive app is currently available at eight healthcare centres in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, with plans to extend its availability to other regions of the country.

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