Mobile phones are being harnessed to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa under a new $10-million scheme announced on Tuesday with the backing of leading companies and the U.S. government. Reuters reports.

“The “Phones-for-Health” project will use software loaded on to a standard Motorola handset to allow care workers in the field to enter critical health information into a central database in real time.

… The new scheme builds on the success of a pilot project in Rwanda and will focus initially on the battle against HIV/AIDS in 10 African countries. South Africa’s MTN is the first operator partner in the program.