PALAPYE, Botswana – This month, Botswana became the first country in Southern Africa, and the third in Africa, to pilot drone technology for health-care delivery. The Drones for Health pilot project aims to reduce preventable maternal deaths by delivering maternal health supplies and commodities – including essential obstetric care drugs, blood, blood products and laboratory specimens – particularly in hard-to-reach communities and health facilities.
Piloting drones to deliver life-saving products for women in rural Botswana africanews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from africanews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Purpose: To describe the timelines leading to presentation, diagnosis and definitive treatment among cervical cancer patients at a tertiary treatment center in Botswana.
Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective study that evaluated timelines to diagnosis and linkage to definitive treatment among cervical cancer patients in Botswana. Medical records of 149 patients admitted at Princess Marina Hospital (PMH) from 2012 to 2014 were reviewed from August 2016 to February 2017. Data collected included socio-demographics, stage of disease at presentation, symptom duration at presentation, diagnosis to definitive treatment interval and treatment outcomes on discharge. STATA 12 was used for data analysis. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyse and present the data. This paper is limited to the analysis of records with documented duration of symptoms, histology turnaround time and the diagnosis to treatment interval.