Ghana will in October introduce drones in delivering essential medicines to remote communities in a move to ensure successful implementation of the Universal Access to Health Care (UHAC) and to end AIDS by 2030. The drones would convey essential medicines like epidemic and viral load samples and most importantly, blood, and would make Ghana the second in Africa after Rwanda to use the drone technology and innovation in health care delivery. Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Director General of the Ghana Health Service, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after he had participated in a panel discussion session, as part of the ongoing 22nd International AIDS Conference being held at the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Even as tech giants from Amazon.com Inc. to Alphabet Inc. generate buzzy headlines with their drone delivery trials, Abdoul Salam Nizeyimana’s employer Zipline International Inc. started running an actual commercial service back in 2016. Zipline, backed by Silicon Valley heavyweights including Sequoia Capital, is headquartered in California, but decided to open its first distribution center in Muhanga, west of Rwanda’s capital Kigali. Nizeyimana and his coworkers have now completed more than 8,000 flights carrying about 15,000 units of blood to 21 hospitals in Rwanda’s western region. The company’s expecting to hear from the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority any day now for approval to start serving the eastern half of the country.



Credits:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-16/this-27-year-old-launches-drones-that-deliver-blood-to-rwanda-s-hospitals