The World’s First Child Given Vaccine Delivered By Drone

The Vanuatu archipelago is located in the middle in the Pacific ocean. The archipelago only has a small population size. Its citizens are spread across different islands, which are separated by the ocean as well as volcanic, mountainous and inaccessible topography.

It is undoubtedly challenging to provide the South Pacific ocean nation with adequate healthcare. As a matter of fact, one of five Ni-Vanuatu children did not receive basic childhood vaccines, as reported by UNICEF. But due to drone technology, it is possible to assist local healthcare professionals.

On Tuesday, UNICEF made an annoucement that the organization and its several partner had succeeded in delivering a vaccine to Cook’s Bay located in Erromango Island. The vaccine was used to vaccinate a child who is one month old to prevent tuberculosis and hepatitis. It took 24 miles (about 40 kilometers) for the drone to travel across mountainous topography in the island’s center to reach its destination.

In a press release from UNICEF, the organization’s Executive Director, Henrietta Fore said that:

The drone carried enough vaccines for five pregnant women as well as 13 children. The joint effort between UNICEF, its private partner and the government of Vanuata has led to the success of the delivery. The flight was addressed by UNICEF as the “first-ever commercial contract to deliver vaccines by drone.”

It's not only the challenging topography that makes it difficult to deliver vaccine to the islands of Vanuatu and other remote areas. The vaccines also need to be kept at a stable low temperature. The solution to this issue is to attach a styrofoam box full of ice packs to the drone.

An electronic logger was also included inside the box by on ground officials in order to detect the temperature, whether it becomes higher than an allowed range.

The remote Vanuatu archipelago is planning to make use of drones as a mean of transpotations for vaccines as well as other health supplies in the long run.