Innovative and Rapid Access to Points of Care to Optimise the Care of Newborns and Infants Exposed to HIV in Conakry, Guinea (2020-2021)

In Conakry, Guinea, like many other African capitals, traffic congestion is a major obstacle to transporting blood samples from peripheral health centres to laboratories where tests are centralised. This situation complicates early HIV testing of HIV- exposed children (i.e., born to HIV-positive mothers), even though the World Health Organization recommends treating HIV-infected children before the age of two months to reduce mortality. The use of drones, which has proved effective in many countries for rapidly transporting healthcare products and reaching isolated areas, could help to resolve these difficulties and improve early detection. A pilot study was conducted from 2020–2021 to assess the feasibility, cost-effectiveness and acceptability of such a strategy. The pilot study had an anthropological component on the acceptability and perception of using drones to optimise the transport of blood samples in Conakry.

在几内亚的康康市，正如非洲众多首都一样，交通拥堵是阻碍从外围卫生中心向集中检测的实验室运送血液样本的主要障碍。这一状况使得对暴露于HIV环境下的儿童（即出生时母亲为HIV阳性者）的早期HIV检测变得复杂，尽管世界卫生组织建议在两个月大之前对HIV感染儿童进行治疗以降低死亡率。无人机技术在许多国家已被证明在快速运输医疗产品及抵达偏远地区方面具有显著效果，其应用有望缓解这些难题并提升早期检测的准确性。一项从2020年至2021年进行的试点研究旨在评估此类策略的可行性、成本效益以及接受度。该试点研究包含一个人类学部分，以探讨在康康市利用无人机优化血液样本运输的接受度和认知情况。