See how drones are used to transport medical supplies and speed up the treatment of HIV infected persons to fight the spread of AIDS in Malawi
See how drones are used to transport medical supplies and speed up the treatment of HIV infected persons to fight the spread of AIDS in Malawi
Learn about an experiment to use drones to transport medical supplies in remote areas in Malawi to help fight the spread of AIDS, 2016.
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Transcript
NEWSCASTER: Well, as we mentioned drones are also being used in research, health care, and medicine. In Malawi the technology is saving lives by speeding up diagnoses. CCTV's Julie Scheier has more.
JULIE SCHEIER: In Malawi, drones have entered Africa's fight against HIV. This drone is being used to transport samples from remote clinics to specialist testing labs. Until now, it was done by motorbike and took about 11 days to get blood samples to a central laboratory for testing for the AIDS virus-- a painfully long time for mothers to wait.
MOTHER: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
INTERPRETER: It's a very painful experience for me because as it is, I don't know whether my child got the disease from me or it is OK. So the waiting is painful. I'm hopeful that they tell me that he's negative because that way I know that he'll have a very bright future.
SCHEIER: No pilot is necessary. All it requires is a health worker with a password and a GPS signal on their mobile phone. Once samples are in and coordinates set, the drone is airborne. The trial is sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, and the Malawian government. Malawi has a national HIV prevalence rate of 10%, one of the highest in the world. And every year around 10,000 children die of HIV. This technology can bring down those numbers and speed up treatment.
JUDITH SHERMAN: There are many delays in the continuum of getting HIV-positive children on treatment. They need to come in early for testing, ideally before two months-- between six and eight weeks. Their tests-- the dried blood spots-- need to get from the health facilities to one of the eight laboratories nationwide. Mothers are still waiting up to two months for those test results. And that can be a very long period in an HIV-positive infant's life.
SCHEIER: The UN agency is spending up to $1.5 million annually on the delivery of HIV blood samples in Malawi. But if this trial proves successful, it could change everything.
PATRICIA NAKELL: We are feeling extremely optimistic about this. We still need to understand how this is going to be possible to do, the feasibility of it, the costs of it. And if it proves as successful as we hope, then we're hoping to roll this out, not only in Malawi, but we can also see rolling this out in other parts of the continent as well.
SCHEIER: This experiment is still in its early phase, but if proven cost effective, this technology has the potential of revolutionizing the delivery of medical testing in rural Africa. And if other African governments find it attractive, it could save many other lives across the continent. Julie Scheier, CCTV, Johannesburg.
JULIE SCHEIER: In Malawi, drones have entered Africa's fight against HIV. This drone is being used to transport samples from remote clinics to specialist testing labs. Until now, it was done by motorbike and took about 11 days to get blood samples to a central laboratory for testing for the AIDS virus-- a painfully long time for mothers to wait.
MOTHER: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
INTERPRETER: It's a very painful experience for me because as it is, I don't know whether my child got the disease from me or it is OK. So the waiting is painful. I'm hopeful that they tell me that he's negative because that way I know that he'll have a very bright future.
SCHEIER: No pilot is necessary. All it requires is a health worker with a password and a GPS signal on their mobile phone. Once samples are in and coordinates set, the drone is airborne. The trial is sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, and the Malawian government. Malawi has a national HIV prevalence rate of 10%, one of the highest in the world. And every year around 10,000 children die of HIV. This technology can bring down those numbers and speed up treatment.
JUDITH SHERMAN: There are many delays in the continuum of getting HIV-positive children on treatment. They need to come in early for testing, ideally before two months-- between six and eight weeks. Their tests-- the dried blood spots-- need to get from the health facilities to one of the eight laboratories nationwide. Mothers are still waiting up to two months for those test results. And that can be a very long period in an HIV-positive infant's life.
SCHEIER: The UN agency is spending up to $1.5 million annually on the delivery of HIV blood samples in Malawi. But if this trial proves successful, it could change everything.
PATRICIA NAKELL: We are feeling extremely optimistic about this. We still need to understand how this is going to be possible to do, the feasibility of it, the costs of it. And if it proves as successful as we hope, then we're hoping to roll this out, not only in Malawi, but we can also see rolling this out in other parts of the continent as well.
SCHEIER: This experiment is still in its early phase, but if proven cost effective, this technology has the potential of revolutionizing the delivery of medical testing in rural Africa. And if other African governments find it attractive, it could save many other lives across the continent. Julie Scheier, CCTV, Johannesburg.