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Drones to deliver ARVs to newly enrolled 500 patients in Kalangala District

The Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) has secured more funding to register 500 patients on the Island District of Kalangala on ARVs treatment. The medication will be delivered to the patients using drones starting next year.

Drones to fly ARVs to newly enrolled 500 patients in Kalangala District

Rosalind Parkes, the Head of Research and Development at the Academy for Health Innovations at the IDI , said that it's been one year since they started flying HIV/AIDS drugs to 60 patients in Bufumira Sub-County in Kalangala.

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She was speaking at the project review work and impact transmission workshop on Friday November 25, saying they have enjoyed a streamlined operation without disruptions nor delays.

"It is one year of uninterrupted supply since we started flying the drugs. They haven’t travelled by boat to the health centre. We are analysing their loads. The health centre has asked us to top up the delivery so that by December, we would have reached 100 patients. We received more money from Johnson and Johnson Corporation to reach another 500 patients," she said.

She said that they have done exceptionally well in delivering drugs in Uganda compared to the rest of Africa. This was evidenced during the Covid-19 lockdown when they used drones to continue the supply of drugs in North-Eastern Uganda.

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“At the moment, we were not able to support all the people linked to Bufumira Island because we need drones that can go about 30kms like we did in Adjumani during the second wave of Covid-19. We delivered 700 samples [of drugs] between Moyo and Adjumani. We have many drone projects all over Africa, but no one is delivering to patients directly as we are,” she said.

Commenting on the project, Richard Ndahiro, the technical adviser for United Nations Capital Development Fund, said that since the pilot project in West Nile, the IDI has demonstrated that using drones for medical service delivery is more convenient than any other means of transport.

“We also wanted to know whether drones have been accepted by communities and health workers and we managed to prove acceptability. The time spent to deliver medical supplies has reduced, but this undertaking needs a lot more resources to be supported,” he said.

Suraj Man Shrestha, a programme officer at World Health Organisation (WHO), said that as more countries introduce new technologies to increase access to medical services, Uganda's drugs body should adopt similar technological innovations.

“The national medical stores is the defacto institution which supplies medicines throughout the country. They should embrace new technologies to void stock-out of drugs. In the West, drones are being rolled out so rapidly, so we should be having discussions on the investment,” he said.

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Mozambique and Rwanda are currently using drones and parachutes to improve health services delivery.

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