GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Two Palestinian students have developed a new application that will help travelers to cope better with health risks. Salamat-e, a GPS-enabled health service application that can be downloaded to cellphones and tablets, will provide information to travelers on epidemic diseases around the world, enabling them to prepare for their travels by getting vaccinated, for instance.

“The Salamat-e app helps travelers and tourists to identify the types of diseases in the areas where they are traveling. It also explains methods of prevention before they travel, such as vaccines and medicine. If they get sick during their travels, the application will assist in locating hospitals and medical centers offering treatment,” Yafa Abd al-Rahim, a student at Birzeit University's Faculty of Business and Economics, told Al-Monitor.

She explained that the app regularly updates following media reports on health alerts and information shared by major hospitals and health institutions around the world.

Rahim and her friend Bashar Shawar, a student at the Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Engineering at Palestine Polytechnic University, are members of a multinational and multidisciplinary team of five that developed the app. The team also includes Tareq Osman Babiker, a medical student at Al-Neelain University in Sudan; Chaimae El Mahdaoui, a student at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Mohammed VI University of Morocco; and Polina Ladchenko, who studies marketing at MGIMO University in Moscow.