(Business in Cameroon) - On June 18, 2014, the MTN Foundation and the Clinton Foundation, one of the organisations most active in the HIV prevention effort worldwide, agreed to a partnership to go on a crusade against late HIV diagnosis in new-borns using a system called SMS Printer.

A kind of cellular phone with an incorporated miniature printer, the SMS Printer will be installed by the Clinton Foundation in 682 testing centres across the country, including those in the most remote rural areas. The MTN Foundation will be providing its network which covers 98% of the country along with its equipment. This arsenal will enable the prompt transmission (by SMS) and immediate printing of test results performed on new-borns by the nation’s two specialised labs. SMS Printer will therefore make results available more quickly and will therefore enable equally rapid initiation of treatment for HIV positive infants.

Today in Cameroon, there are usually several months between the administering of the test and the release of the results as there are only two labs in the country that are able to conduct HIV tests on new-borns: Centre International de Recherche Chantal Biya in Yaoundé and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Mutengene, dans the south-west.

“Blood samples have to be transported from where the blood was drawn to the specialised lab which can be hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away with all the transportation challenges that are inherent in Cameroon due to its infrastructural development. The results of the test must then do the return trip to where the sample was taken. Sometimes, the results can take three to six months to arrive. In such circumstances, a child infected at birth can fall through the cracks or die without ever being treated because no one knew his or her status,” indicated the MTN Foundation for which the SMS Printer project will be a “real revolution”.

In addition, with this system, the Clinton Foundation and the MTN Foundation hope to save “the life of 10,000 new-borns over the three years of the partnership.” According to the MTN Foundation, “studies conducted in other countries such as Nigeria and Kenya show that SMS technology significantly reduced the wait time for early test results and enabled the results to be available by the time the mother returns to the health centre. Similar results were also found in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia.”