Today’s Solutions: November 02, 2024

Advancements in modern medicine allow for multitudes of medical problems to be managed by the individuals who live with them, but what good are these advancements to those living in remote areas if they aren’t accessible?

Ensuring that remote communities have equitable access to modern treatments is one of the biggest hurdles that global health faces today. A new pilot project in Uganda aims to solve this issue by using medical drones to deliver lifesaving medications from Bugumira Health Center III to the Kalangala district.

Uganda’s Kalangala district is made up of 84 islands in Lake Victoria and is one of the most inaccessible communities in the region. It also has a high HIV prevalence rate of 18 percent, which greatly surpasses the national rate of 5.6 percent.

Getting critical antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and healthcare to this region isn’t easy to coordinate; healthcare workers can only access Kalangala by boat, so the completion of the trip is dependent on favorable weather conditions. Andrew Kambugu, executive director at Makerere University Infectious Disease Institute (IDI), says that the drones will potentially “[close] that last mile of delivery and [ensure] that people living in remote communities have… access to modern treatments for HIV.”

Uganda’s ministry of health, the Academy for Health Innovation, and IDI worked together on the pilot project at Bufumira, which successfully carried ARVs to over 1,000 people living with HIV. The program will continue to send drones on 20 scheduled flights per month to 78 community groups and health facilities throughout the islands.

The aim of this program, as well as other drone distribution and delivery projects taking place in African countries such as Rwanda and Ghana, is to provide research opportunities and data to analyze and quantify the efficacy of drones for bringing medications to the people that need them most. All of the studies conducted with the information available through these programs will be used to inform how drone technology progresses and how to adequately respond to emergencies.

Source Image: Makerere University Infectious Disease Institute

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

This heartwarming Danish ad breaks down the ‘Us vs Them’ narrative

It’s rare that we publish a story about an advertisement, but then again it’s rare that an ad stirs so much emotion within its ...

Read More

NOAHs: Charlotte has a formula for long-lasting affordable housing

We recently shared how empty retail space could be the solution to California’s affordable housing crisis. Across the country in North Carolina, the city ...

Read More

A seat at the table for underrepresented communities

Climate change is already affecting all of us—however, those that bear the brunt of these consequences are predominantly from low-income, marginalized, BIPOC communities. So ...

Read More

Expanding democracy: Michigan opens new doors for formerly incarcerated voters

Malijah Gee's path from incarceration at the age of 17 to imminent freedom reflects the longing for a voice that has been suppressed for 36 years. ...

Read More