A New Tool In Humanitarian Relief: Texting

Understanding how Ebola is affecting the food supply is far easier when a robot is running the survey.

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.  A UN World Food Programme (WFP) survey earlier this month found that households in Kailahun and Kenema—two districts in eastern Sierra Leone badly affected by the Ebola outbreak—are using “severe food coping strategies.”

“This means people are struggling to meet their basic food needs,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, a food analyst with the WFP. These coping strategies can include skipping meals, reducing portion sizes, and eating less-preferred foods...