Healthcare Magazine November 2017 | Page 11

HOW DRONES ARE SAVING LIVES
Lifesaving Deliveries with Zipline plane can still fly itself home . Actually , even if a computer fails , the control can be passed to another computer . It really is a fail-safe system .”
Aside from delivering life-saving blood supplies , Zipline is also able to drop vaccines for rabies and malaria , along with HIV medication and bloodtesting kits . Vaccines are small and valuable , and need to be refrigerated both in transport and storage . In rural areas in developing countries it ’ s difficult to ensure that vaccines are being stored correctly and if they aren ’ t kept between two and eight degrees Celsius , they will spoil and have to be destroyed . Therefore , drones that able to deliver small batches of vaccines as and when required , by health centres and hospitals , are both cost and waste-effective .
“ If a large batch of valuable vaccines
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