Denis Opudo
Tanzania and Rwanda rural areas are faced with challenges of accessing and storage of medical facilities. The time taken for medical supplies arrive in those areas is averagely not less than two hours government inability to stock many medical supplies in the rural areas is a huge challenge to those seeking immediate medication. Many lives have therefore been put at risk because of those reasons.
Zilpine is a California based company that uses drones to offer blood delivery in Rwandan rural. It has been operational since October 2016. The company is currently responsible for the 20% blood supply in Kigali. The company is on its way to Tanzania to help in solving the same problem as the one in Rwanda. There will be a construction of four distributors across Tanzania. Zilpine will not only deliver blood in Tanzania, but it will also transport other crucial medical products like rabies vaccines and anti-venom. Zilpine is collaborating with the Tanzanian government to see that they have put up the biggest drone delivery system globally.
There will be a total of 100 drones that can make 2, 000 flights made daily servicing 1, 000 public health facilities in Tanzania. First, the public health workers have to send a text message to Zilpline’s center after which one out of the 30 drones within the region will spend 30 minutes in delivering the orders. Unlike the high cost experienced on such delivery, drones will only require 3 pounds for a single trip. The services will be first available in Dodoma at the beginning of 2018.
According to Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo, a large number of people all over the world dies annually since they are not able to get the necessary medicine at the right time. This is witnessed in both developed and developing countries. African nations are driving away the notion that the technological developments only starts in rich countries before they are enrolled in developing countries
