Infectious disease expert Dr. Joel Selanikio says time is of the essence in getting communication out to people in a crisis situation such as the Ebola crisis.

Mobile phones

He said mobile phones allow health care workers to call people and alert people through text messaging of lab results, for example.  In addition mobile phones allow people living in hard to reach areas or villages to submit information via texting to health care workers about their symptoms.

“So if you think of all of the population of West Africa, and you think of all the mobile phones that they have, and there’s probably in the cities 100 percent of the population has a mobile phone. In the countryside it’s probably, 40 or 50 percent has a mobile phone. But everyone has access to one,” Selanikio highlighted. Read more