Cold chain systems, as they are referred, deal with the how the vaccines are stored & transported in a certain range of cold temperatures for the vaccines to retain their effectiveness. It is so critical to maintain the temperature that otherwise; the reduced potency or complete lack of any potency does not only result in wastage of good vaccine but also give people false sense of vaccination. And of course all this associated with loss of good funding and all the resources involved during the storage & transport.
In India, it is estimated that only 65% of the children are immunized and it is a long way to go to 100%. Even if you have vaccine supply available they won’t reach the kids in need, if the cold chain systems fail. Primary reason weakness in cold chain systems arises, in India & all of the developing nations, is lack of proper electricity supply. Many of the villages are off-grid and even if they are on-grid the voltage fluctuations do not make cold storage viable. One might think of developing an off-grid gas powered solution and it might work in some parts not in others, as they may not even have proper road networks and the health-care worker has to walk to carry the vaccines!
As you can see, one needs to develop a small portable storage & transport, that uses alternative sources of cooling and maintains the temperature needed for the vaccines. There are other challenges too in terms burden on care workers and visibility of vaccine locations & availability etc, will write a post on later.
Good luck to all the Pieneers! As always, know of anyone or any startup working on this, please let me know, I will update this post.
[Image Credit: Thanks to ulleo via Pixabay]
I like this #ProWoSo, the lack of proper cold chain storage and transportation vehicles for vaccines.
Vaccines are which provide immunity for diseases.
Most vaccines are heat sensitive and remain potent between 2 degree celsius and 8 degree celsius. Thus maintaining a cold chain becomes critical.
Are they being maintained in safe conditions? The answer would be no, in developing countries like India there are no proper cold storage facilities for vaccines and they lack in proper transportation facilities too, as a result they are not reaching to the people when needed.
When higher levels of the supply chain increase delivery frequency, space is created, but delivery costs increase.
In India, the wastage differs for each vaccine, but the supply of vaccines is computed by 25 per cent wastage rate for all vaccines except BCG which records the maximum wastage of over 50 per cent.
This shows the drastic situation of the developing nations in maintenance of vaccines, this is #ProWoSo.
Thank you for thinking of and adding your voice to this #ProWoSo.