Abstract - Telemedicine is a powerful tool to support remote hospitals to promote health in developing countries. However, Digital Divide is a strong obstacle to the diffusion of this technology. We developed a Telemedicine platform with a minimum need of connectivity and software resource and high usability, to support the Swaziland caregivers in their fight against the AIDS/HIV disease. The platform offers the possibility of real- time professional consulting, learning tools, scientific documentation availability, and data exchange to the physician of the Siteki Hospital in Swaziland, whose number is severely insufficient. The platform is supported by the physicians of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Hospital L. Sacco, Milan, Italy, and has been implemented using the WordPress CMS enhanced with LMS facilities to ensure an easy management by the African caregivers. After the positive training and testing stage, we aim to integrate the platform with the Siteki Hospital information system to facilitate the clinical data exchange. Keywords - Africa, AIDS, CMS, consulting, Digital Divide, Internet, e-learning, HIV, LMS, Swaziland, Telemedicine, web. I. INTRODUCTION A. Digital Divide “ …In the 21st century, the capacity to communicate will almost certainly be a key human right. Eliminating the distinction between information rich and information poor countries is also critical to eliminating economic and other inequalities between North and South, and to improving the quality of life of all humanity. Converging developments in the fields of information and communications offer immense potential to make real progress in this direction. The pace at which the price of communications and information systems has fallen has also This project has been supported by the Municipality of Milan, Italy, in the frame of the Program of International Solidarity and Cooperation “Milan in the fight against hunger, malnutrition and related diseases”. R. Pizzi is Senior Researcher and S. Grassi is graduate Student at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Milan, Italy (R. Pizzi corresponding author, tel. 0039 02 503 30072, e-mail rita.pizzi@unimi.it); L. Oreni is Researcher and A.L. Ridolfo, S. Rusconi are Physicians at the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, L. Sacco Hospital, University of Milan; M. Galli is Full Professor and Director of the same Institute, F. Croce is Physician at the Palliative Care and Pain Therapy, Buzzi Hospital, Milan. undermined the previously rigid link between a nation's wealth and its information richness. There is an unprecedented window of opportunity. But the present reality is that the technology gap between the developed and developing nations is actually widening. Most of the world has no experience of what readily accessible communications can do for society and economy.” Nelson Mandela, Telecom 95 Speech, October 3, 1995 [1]. The massive spread of the Internet among the population should in principle reduce inequality and improve the quality of life of all social strata also as regards health, through immediate access and better health care. Vice versa, the reality is a strong social difference in the access to the Internet, which leads to further accentuate inequalities of those who already have a privileged position, denying advancement opportunities for the less privileged (Fig. 1). Digital Divide is called the gap between people who have access to digital technologies and those who have not. Particularly in developing countries, sources of information and new models of communication are not easy to access. This limits the ability of these polutions to gather information and to coordinate with each other to solve problems. Digital Divide in developing countries arise from several types of obstacles: - physical (access to computers, and network connections to access the Internet) - economic (costs of applications, engineers, trainers, software, maintenance and infrastructures) - cultural (the use of technology requires a certain level of education) - institutional (a large number of users cannot access the Internet at work or in public sites) - political: the Internet is considered a form of digital democracy and is often considered a dangerous technology whose spread must be limited and controlled. Telemedicine for Africa: collaborative action between Italy and Swaziland against HIV infection R. Pizzi, L. Oreni, S. Grassi, A. L. Ridolfo, S. Rusconi, F. Croce and M. Galli