Cold chain management and effective delivery of immunization services

Abstract or Introduction

Ancient Greeks had two gods of health: Aesculapius and Hygieia, therapy and prevention, respectively. Medicine in the twentieth century retains those two concepts, and vaccination is a powerful means of prevention.

Vaccines provide the immunity that comes from natural infection without the consequences of natural infection; help protect people from harmful infections before they come in contact with the disease.

All vaccines are thermo-sensitive and need to be properly stored and distributed. The success of an immunization program depends on a system that ensures that vaccines are not thermally damaged (by heat or freezing) during transport and storage. The system or network that ensures vaccines are transported and stored at and within the recommended temperature range of +2oC to +8oC from the place of their manufacture to the point of vaccine administration is called the “cold chain”.

The cold chain plays a crucial role in maintaining the potency and efficacy of vaccines throughout the immunization process and must therefore never be broken.

This paper investigates aspects of cold chain management, such as temperature monitoring and cold chain system logistics.