Iraq’s largest private telecommunications company, Asiacell, announced this week the launch of its mobile health content download and SMS service which is now available to its prepaid and postpaid subscribers. Asiacell is the only mobile telecom company providing coverage for all of Iraq.

The new service offers information on various health practices which can be discriminately selected by the user. Asiacell offers a weekly and a daily health update service. The daily health updates include information on women’s health, men’s health, children’s health, dieting, mental health, and diabetes. Albeit a little more limited, the weekly updates is a downloadable service which only cover topics such as sports and fitness, mental health, and emergency medicine.

Customers can subscribe to the daily SMS service, by sending a blank SMS message to the toll-free short code “2330”, and then send their preferred health topic, which they can choose from a list that will be automatically sent via SMS, to short code “2331”.  This service costs IQD 2,500 ($2.14) per month.

Subscribers can also download content on a weekly basis by sending the number “1” to short code “2332” for sports and fitness information, or to “2333” for mental health information, or to “2334” for emergency medicine information. This service costs IQD 2,000 ($1.71) per month.

A similar service operates in India called mDhil which uses SMS to send health messages on various topics. The service overcame social stigmas regarding certain topics of health such as reproductive health, and became one of the most successful mHealth programs in India. Asiacell’s new service faces identical hurdles in Iraq and hopes to prevail like mDhil did.

Asiacell is the only telecom provider to cover all of Iraq. They provide services to nearly 8 million of the estimated 31 million living in Iraq. This is remarkable given that just 5 years ago under the reign of Saddam Hussein, less than one million Iraqis had access to land lines and the average civilian did not have access to a mobile phone. Despite that and the war which ruined telecommunication infrastructure, Iraqis now have steady access to telecom services, especially mobile phones.

It is probably due to the increased access to information that has led Iraqis to become more health conscious claims Asiacell. Dr. Mustafa Adil, an Iraqi physician, said that maintaining a healthy lifestyle has become a major concern for communities, as people are more aware of the importance of following the latest health advancements and practices. He explained that Asiacell’s Mobile Health service supports the healthcare sector’s goal to promote sound health habits.