Uganda tests drones to speed up delivery of HIV medicine

Joan Akullo, Project coordinator for Medical Drones Project, loads bottles of ARVs on a drone for delivery to patients from Bufumira sub-county, to Kusu Village in Kalangala district, Uganda. — Reuters

KALANGALA, Uganda: Uganda is delivering HIV medicine by drone in an archipelago in Lake Victoria, a pilot programme aiming to improve the transport of medical supplies for the country's health system, which faces chronic shortages.

The trial is funded by pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, and run by the government-run Infectious Diseases Institute. It delivers HIV drugs from a hospital to patients in rural hamlets in Kalangala, an 84-island-archipelago.