POST 00989E : VVM USE AND FREEZE INDICATORS

POST 00989E : VVM USE AND FREEZE INDICATORS Follow-up on Posts 00960E, 00962E, 00964E, 00970E, 00973E, 00975E and 00978E 11 October 2006 ___________________________________________ This posting contains two short contributions. The first, originally in French, is from Abdoulaye Djigo (mailto:[email protected]) from Senegal if I am not mistaken. His suggestion would make sense, but I believe that it is quite a technical problem with gas or kerosene refrigerators. I gather that some experts will reply. The second is from Sobhan Sarkar (mailto:[email protected]) from India. Ãœmit Kartoglu (mailto:[email protected]) from WHO/HQ had discussed this concept of freeze indicator in his contribution in the previous posting (Post 00978E of 22 September). ___________________________________________ Contributions on VVMs and freeze indicators are very interesting. I wonder if manufacturers could not introduce a special temperature probe to stop the refrigerator from functioning, each time the temperature gets close to the freezing point of vaccines. It would be like a supplementary "thermostat" to ensure vaccine quality. Of course such a solution will mean extra cost, but it will help to save vaccines. Abdoulaye Oumar DJIGO Expert-Consultant. -------------------------------- TheT series and Hepatitis B vaccine is damaged by freezing. Freeze Watch is one of the mean to detect such incidence. However, there is need to develop VVM to detect such vials in which vaccine had frozen. Such VVM can be imprinted on the label. In practice we have encountered damage to the vaccine while transported in cold boxes or vaccine carriers due to direct contact with solid frozen ice packs. This will help the end user to identify damaged vaccine due to freezing. Thus, such vaccine vials will have two VVMs one to indicate freezing the other to indicate exposure to higher temparature. This suggestion has been made by me on several occasions in the past. Dr. Sobhan Sarkar NTA WHO/GoI ______________________________________________________________________________ All members of the TechNet21 e-Forum are invited to send comments on any posting or to use the forum to raise a new discussion or request technical information in relation to immunization services. The comments made in this forum are the sole responsibility of the writers and do not in any way mean that they are endorsed by any of the organizations and agencies to which the authors may belong. ______________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________