ABSTRACT
Vacine cold chain assessments conducted in various parts of the world indicate that maintaining equipment at the temperature range recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) is not always observed. It has been also the case that staff rather prioritize protecting vaccine from heat damage, thus often exposing vaccines to freezing temperatures. As a result, inadvertent freezing of vaccines is a largely overlooked problem all over the world. In a recent systematic review, comparison of the occurrence of freezing temperatures during storage and transport were found to be a global problem occurring both in the resource-rich as well as the resource-limited settings. A vaccine cold chain temperature monitoring study was conducted using standard WHO study protocol with the objective to document potential problems and to identify appropriate control measures. Multiple temperature monitoring devices were used in the study to evaluate user friendliness of these devices and staff attitudes towards them. In general, majority of the time, temperatures were kept between recommended temperature range of 2-8 °C. Temperature variation got wider when products moved from 3PL Laboratory to service points. The wider variation is found at the service points. High temperature excursions were observed or short periods of time while exposures to freezing temperatures were more both higher in number and duration, however, shake test with these vaccines indicated no freeze damage. 91% of staff believed that they did not have the necessary tools to detect if a vaccine had been damaged by a temperature excursion outside the 2-8 °C range, and all staff believed that inclusion of such devices (e.g. vaccine vial monitor) in the system would improve cold chain operations as they have became aware of problematic areas through this study.
