Malaria Elimination in Africa Initiative

The Malaria Elimination in Africa Initiative was founded to continue the work initiated during the PBIC challenge. A cooperative relationship was established between donors and local hospitals in Accra, Ghana, providing free anti-malarial treatment to children in Accra, Ghana, who were infected with malaria. Over $30,000 has been raised and donated to date, with plans to extend the impact during the upcoming summer.

The problem we are facing

In African regions, the issue of dysentery has been long-standing and significantly severe, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where sanitation conditions are poor, clean water sources are limited, and medical resources are scarce. The 2019 World Malaria Report indicates that there were 228 million malaria cases globally in that year, with the majority occurring in African areas; however, this report did not furnish specific data concerning dysentery.
Over the years, the mortality rate for dysentery among children under five has been relatively high, making it one of the principal reasons contributing to child fatalities.
Considering the dysentery problems faced by the impoverished populations in Africa, this is an issue of public health and healthcare accessibility. Among the main causes lies the challenge of inadequate sanitation and scarce medical resources.
Against a backdrop of poor hygiene conditions and insufficient medical resources, how can we effectively improve living environments in impoverished African regions and enhance healthcare service levels to reduce the prevalence of dysentery caused by these factors, ultimately alleviating the public health burden posed by dysentery?

Our definition of the problem

1. Improved Access to Healthcare:
In resource-scarce areas, digital means can transcend geographical barriers, ensuring timely access to professional medical advice and guidance for patients.

3. Optimized Medical Resource Allocation:Organizations like Doctors Without Borders can use the patient data on the platform to more efficiently allocate their limited human and material medical resources, prioritizing serious or high-risk cases.

2. Accelerated Diagnosis:
Patients uploading case information via mobile devices (symptom descriptions or images) can facilitate rapid identification of illnesses by doctors, especially during emergencies.

4. Reduced Misdiagnosis and Missed Diagnosis: Standardized data entry and review by professional medical personnel can effectively minimize misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis resulting from lack of experience or inadequate medical facilities.

The way we found

We envision creating a digital healthcare platform that enables patients to upload their medical records, allowing doctors from organizations such as Doctors Without Borders to remotely view and subsequently conduct consultations. We hope that such a platform could serve as an effective approach to address issues related to poor sanitation conditions and inadequate medical resources in certain parts of Africa.