{"id":151967,"date":"2023-07-17T18:07:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T16:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/southern-africa\/botswana\/from-hours-to-minutes-drones-speed-up-medical-deliveries-to-save-mothers-lives-in-remote-botswana\/"},"modified":"2023-07-17T18:07:14","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T16:07:14","slug":"from-hours-to-minutes-drones-speed-up-medical-deliveries-to-save-mothers-lives-in-remote-botswana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/southern-africa\/botswana\/from-hours-to-minutes-drones-speed-up-medical-deliveries-to-save-mothers-lives-in-remote-botswana\/","title":{"rendered":"From hours to minutes: Drones speed up medical deliveries to save mothers' lives in remote Botswana"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In the remote village of Mababe, Botswana, getting results from a straightforward blood test is no simple matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

First, samples must be collected by an ambulance headed for Maun, where there is a major hospital and lab services; then, the ambulance must cover 116 kilometres of rugged terrain\u00a0traversed by elephants, hippos and other wildlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trip can take three hours or more, and that\u2019s when it can be made at all;\u00a0during the rainy season, flooding shuts the route down entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe samples have to arrive at the lab in Maun before 11 a.m.,\u201d said Mababe Health Post nurse Lorato Dambe. \u201cBut that\u2019s not always possible due to the distance and difficult road conditions, leading to possible contamination of samples.”<\/p>\n

For too many around the world, health care remains out of reach due to a fundamental problem: distance.\u00a0Recent research<\/a>\u00a0suggests nearly one in ten people globally live more than an hour\u2019s drive from healthcare, and almost half of humanity lives more than an hour\u2019s walk from it.<\/p>\n

While the majority of Botswana\u2019s population lives\u00a0less than 5 km away<\/a>\u00a0from a health facility, there are exceptions to this rule \u2013 like Mababe. To help close the gap in access, UNFPA and Botswana\u2019s Ministry of Health have launched an innovative initiative that, rather than relying on ground transportation to connect people and care, has taken to the skies: Drones for Health.<\/p>\n

The need for speed<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Drones for Health programme, first\u00a0piloted in Botswana<\/a>\u00a0in April 2021, aims to reduce delivery times from hours to minutes for essential medical supplies and samples from health-care hubs to reach remote clinics.<\/p>\n

“Speed is everything,” said nurse David Selemogwe of Somelo Health Post. “If samples sit for a long time, at some point the specimen starts deteriorating. It’s not so useful anymore.”<\/p>\n

Between 25 and 40 per cent of all temperature-sensitive medical supplies sent from urban centres to rural health clinics are wasted because of unreliable cold-chain infrastructure. Rural clinics also often experience stock-outs, leaving patients in need of specialized products and drugs unable to get them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These are life-threatening access problems that the Drones for Health project hopes to help resolve, largely by leapfrogging traditional modes of transportation.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just samples the drones can transport: The idea is also to curb preventable maternal deaths in Botswana through the swift delivery of maternal health supplies, such as blood, equipment and medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen can experience massive blood loss due to haemorrhaging\u00a0during childbirth. Blood and blood-based products are therefore critical,\u201d\u00a0UNFPA Botswana country director Beatrice Mutali<\/a>\u00a0explained in 2021.<\/p>\n

Botswana has a high maternal death rate, at 166 deaths per 100,000 live births according to\u00a02019 government data<\/a>. The main causes are postpartum haemorrhage, complications after abortion and hypertensive disorders during pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Progress towards averting these deaths has recently stagnated, with the national maternal mortality rate actually\u00a0increasing<\/a>\u00a0between 2015 and 2020. Drones are one creative approach to making headway on reversing this trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology and digitally-driven solutions have the potential to transform health care, particularly for women and girls in underserved communities, who are often left behind due to [living] in hard-to-reach areas,\u201d said Ms. Mutali.<\/p>\n

Piloting change<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before that happens, however, communities will need to start seeing drones in a different light. Interviews with villagers from Mababe revealed many felt wary of them; 33-year-old mother-of-two Gotang Mmala told UNFPA, for instance, that she associates the word \u201cdrone\u201d with suspicious devices spraying poison from the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But with time these perceptions might change, especially as the Ministry of Health partners with UNFPA to expand the Drones for Health pilot from Palapye region to include several more villages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drones will improve health-care delivery as they will address terrain constraints and challenges of limited resources, such as vehicles \u2013 and reduce preventable deaths,\u201d said Ngami District Health management team coordinator Dr. Sandra Maripe-Ebutswe.<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UNFPA – East and Southern Africa.<\/i><\/p>\n

Source<\/a>
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Southern Africa Botswana<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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