Drones are helping transport phlegm and save stranded people, reports The Doomslayer:
- In India, a pilot program is using drones to rapidly transport phlegm samples from rural areas to laboratories for tuberculosis testing, helping patients avoid costly trips to distant testing centers.
- During recent floods in China, rescue operators used drones to deliver emergency supplies and hoist stranded people to safety.
The New Indian Express reports on how drones are transporting phlegm suspected of containing tuberculosis bacteria:
Using drones to transport diagnostic samples has significantly reduced both the time and cost of tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis while improving access to testing in remote and underserved areas, according to a latest study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Conducted under ICMR’s flagship i-DRONE initiative, the study found that the median turnaround time for TB diagnosis fell from 15 days to five days after the introduction of drone-based sample transport.
The study also found a sharp reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) for patients seeking a TB diagnosis, with the average cost falling to Rs 91 from Rs 9,451 under the conventional transport system.
Tuberculosis has fallen 21% in India since 2015, while malaria has fallen 80%. Still, a parasite recently invaded a woman’s brain when she visited India.
Annual rabies cases have fallen by 12,000 in India, down to about 6,000 cases. That’s due to sterilization of stray dogs, which has led to fewer dog bites.
Chatbots are being developed for India’s many languages (700 languages are spoken in India).
