Greetings, everyone. I hope that you are healthy and keeping your spirits up amidst these trying times. In March this year, just before COVID-19 shutdowns, I visited health facilities in Kinshasa - where mothers were being asked to wait (one for over 2 hours) and turned away for measles vaccination...

The recently published topic page on dose per container (DPC) provides a range of useful resources from case studies to decision support documents to better understand the effects of DPC on six immunization system components; namely operational costs, timely coverage, safety, wastage, and polic...

Three years after the freeze-free concept was reported at the September 2014 meeting of the WHO PQS Committee, the current expectation of availability remains ‘sometime next year’ and it appears that no product has passed the pre-qualification (E004/VC02-VP.1) testing yet. The current status of thi...

Most of the countries now have improved immunization coverages and reach more children with vaccination, but we still need to monitor the potency of vaccines that are given on top of the high coverages we have achieved in many countries. One of the biggest challenges when we talk about vaccine pot...

AWAY WITH THE DOGMA! 1: “Monitoring Closed Vial Wastage”   This is the first Blog in a series to encourage vaccine supply chain planners to consider changes without being constrained by some, dogmatic operational policies of the Expanded Program on Immunization. Taking one issue at a time I shall ...

Dear viewers Short supply of vaciines requiring multiple doses is one of the causes of accentuating negeative dropout rate, making the indicator invalid for programme review. India introduced two fractional doses of 0.1mL intra-dermal IPV in the National Immunization Schedule (NIS) since April 201...

Dear viewers - sharing the following for needful Universally it is very well known that vaccination is one of the most cost effective public health programme from control to eradication of Vaccine Preventable diseases. Public sector is provided with proper cold chain equipments, periodic training ...

Dear viewers - Please find the following and the attached illustration for a critical review and needful. Background: CCH Mrs Anitha Beth and Asst CCH Mr Mukesh could not believe when the author shared his observations that the “T” series vaccines were found in “Frozen” condition at the session si...

Knowing the problem of vaccines being frozen because of too cold ice-packs. What about freezers that does not get colder that minus 5'C...

Does anyone have experience with vaccine passive storage devices in the field? We are piloting the PQS pre-qualified Arktek device in three rural health centers. By design, the device maintains a temperature range between 0°C and 10°C which will not freeze the vaccines so should not pose any risk to...

Vaccines can tolerate temperatures above 8 deg C however temperatures below 0 deg C will freeze a vaccine and it will lose it’s efficacy. At temperatures above 8 deg C the life of a vaccine will be lowered but the exposure will not be catastrophic. For the most sensitive vaccine, VVM II, the life of...

For your reading pleasure (and viewing since there is a 1 minute video)...

Most ice-lined refrigerators in India are fully functional at 5 - 45 degrees Celsius (ie, they are able to maintain an internal temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius when the external temperatures are between 5 and 45 degrees Celsius). Some states of India have an extremely cold climate during winters ...

The WHO UNICEF immunization Supply Chain Hub (iSC Hub)has released a new temperature monitoring website hosted on TechNet-21. A stringent system for temperature surveillance is essential to maintain the quality of the vaccines in an effective Supply Chain. By preventing vaccine exposure to freezing...

Dose per Container Partnership (DPCP) The issue: Multi-dose containers are used to offer lower prices, higher supply volumes, and minimize cold chain storage and distribution requirements. As new, more expensive, vaccines are introduced in multi-dose presentations, maximizing the use of every dose ...

A recent article on vaccine wastage from the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health http://www.ijcmph.com/?mno=214575 Abstract Background: India released its first National Vaccine Policy in 2011. The country is presently developing new strategies to increase immunization...

Immunization outreach services depend on a protective, affordable and efficient supply chain to benefit rather than obstruct outreach operations. Four potential cold-chain solutions are on offer but each has barriers to be negotiated or removed. The options are: Frozen water packs BUT we should s...

Potency of vaccine at the time of administration to the beneficiaries is of utmost importance in preventing morbidity and mortality due to vaccine preventable diseases. Evolution of more and more vaccines against crippling and lethal diseases has made vaccination the most cost-effective and importan...

“Apps” (computer software applications) are being developed and used as tools to help manage the vaccines and medicines supply chain more and more. But are they directed at challenges that have persisted the longest and would have the greatest impact if resolved? Take, for example, the following two...

The budget impact of controlling wastage with smaller vials: A data driven model of session sizes in Bangladesh, India (Uttar Pradesh), Mozambique, and Uganda. W Yang, M Parisi, B Lahue, J Uddin, D Bishai - Vaccine, 2014 Link to full Article. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264...