Condom A Capella Ringtone Fights HIV In India

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And now a very different technology story for you. It's about a new public-health campaign in India, a campaign that's using technology to prevent the transmission of HIV, or at least to remind people how they might prevent the transmission of HIV. It's this.

(Soundbite of ringtone)

Unidentified Men: (Singing) Condom.

SIEGEL: That's right, the word is condom. It's a ringtone for your cell phone. It's a catchy a capella arrangement of the word that just repeats it over and over and over.

(Soundbite of ringtone)

Unidentified People: (Singing) Condom, condom, condom, condom, condom, condom, condom, condom, condom…

SIEGEL: The ringtone campaign is the brainchild of the BBC World Service Trust and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. India has 2.5 million people living with HIV. In less than a month, according to the campaign's organizers, the condom song has been downloaded more than 60,000 times. That's .02 percent of the cell phone-owning population of India.

(Soundbite of ringtone)

Unidentified People: (Singing) Condom, condom, condom, condom…

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