"Three, two, one, launch!" And with that, catapulted from a ramp, the small fixed-wing drone buzzes into the air towards its programmed destination, Kabgayi Hospital, 2km away in Rwanda. On Friday, Rwanda inaugurated a drone operation that its backers hope will start a revolution in the supply of medical care in rural parts of Africa, in the first instance by delivering batches of blood to 21 clinics in the west of the country. Maternal mortality rates in Africa are among the highest in the world, according to the World Health Organisation, largely due to postpartum haemorrhage and the lack of access to blood transfusions. Rwanda is no exception, and the situation is worsened by the topography of a country dubbed "the land of a thousand hills" and subject to intense seasonal rains. Blood "is a very precious commodity so you cannot just stock a lot of it in every single health centre", said Keller Rinaudo, CEO of Zipline, a California robotics company that designed the 15 drones and ...
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