The Atlantic: A New Tool in Humanitarian Relief: Texting
“Pandemics, like war, have a higher cost than their death toll. On top of the 5,000 lives that Ebola has claimed, there are other sorts of victims in the six West African countries the virus has reached. The emergency erodes trust and infrastructures, threatening local economics and livelihoods. One infrastructure that’s relatively hard to take down with disease, though, is the cellular phone system. Now, researchers are using it to check on the well-being of people living among the Ebola pandemic…” (Meyer, 10/27).