Storage issues could leave $ 3 billion without COVID-19 vaccine

The world’s most promising coronavirus vaccine candidates need to be refrigerated to be safe and effective.

Health officials are watching the progress in equipping developing countries with the machinery needed to keep vaccines cold. However, nearly 3 billion people live in areas where temperature-controlled storage is lacking for vaccination campaigns to control the virus.

Result: Poor people who suffered the most from COVID-19 may also be the last to recover from COVID-19.

Maintain cold chain“Coronavirus vaccine” is not easy even in the wealthiest countries. Some vaccines need to be kept at temperatures around minus 70 degrees Celsius to maintain their effectiveness. Due to the health crisis of COVID-19, investment in cooling technology is decreasing this year. So is spending on transportation and other infrastructure.

Experts warn that most of the world lacks the refrigeration equipment needed to manage effective vaccination programs. This includes most of Central Asia, most of India and Southeast Asia, parts of Latin America, and all but a small part of Africa.

Broken cold chain

The cold chain collapses at Gampera, a small medical center in Burkina Faso, a West African country. The center serves a population of 11,000. And almost a year has passed, even if the refrigerator isn’t working.

After the refrigerator broke down last year, the center was unable to store vaccines for diseases such as tetanus, yellow fever and tuberculosis. nurse Julienne Zoungrana said workers used motorcycles to obtain vaccines from hospitals in the capital Ouagadougou. They made a 40-minute round trip on a narrow road.

Adamatapsova is the mother of two small children. She often walks in the hot sun for four hours to get her baby vaccinated and waits another hour to see a doctor.Recently, her five-month-old son plans Faisal’s daughter was ill and could only walk one child, so she was vaccinated.

“It will be difficult to get the (COVID-19) vaccine. People will have to wait in the hospital and may leave without getting it,” Tapsoba said.

International organizations have added tens of thousands to maintain the cold chain of developing countries Sun-Powered vaccine refrigerator.From the time the vaccine is manufactured until it is administered to the patient, it is in the cold chain mobile Refrigeration, reliable electricity, good roads and careful planning.

In poor countries like Burkina Faso, the most likely to get a coronavirus vaccine is Covax Initiative. This is a project of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Gavi Vaccine Alliance.

The· Covax Goals To order some promising vaccine candidates and provide all countries with the safest and most successful vaccine candidates.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has begun preparations distribution COVID-19 vaccination in Copenhagen a few months ago. There, UNICEF’s crew are busy working at the world’s largest supply center for humanitarian aid. They are trying to predict shortages by learning from the past, such as when protective equipment disappears or is stolen from the airport.

WHO says 42 coronavirus vaccine candidates are currently being tested by human volunteers. Vaccines most likely to be provided by the Covax Initiative should be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius.

American pharmaceutical company Pfizer is testing one of the most promising vaccine candidates. Must be stored at a temperature of minus 70 ° C. The company has designed a special carrying case for the vaccine. Pfizer has signed contracts to supply vaccines to the United States, Europe and Japan. He is also interested in Covax.

Medical freezers that drop to minus 70 degrees Celsius are rare in hospitals in the United States and Europe. Many experts believe that some West African countries may be in the best position. These areas were hit by a health crisis of Ebola from 2014 to 2016. Like the coronavirus vaccine, the Ebola vaccine should be stored at a very low temperature.

Since 2017, Gavi and UNICEF have been working to supply much of Africa and Asia with a freezer to store vaccines. UNICEF is currently providing the government with a list of what it needs to maintain its vaccine supply chain and is asking the government to make plans.

“The government is in charge of what ultimately needs to happen,” said Benjamin Schreiber, head of the UN agency’s vaccination program.

Vaccine transport

Vaccination does not last long. Container ships are not equipped to refrigerate drugs for long periods of time. Airlifting vaccines costs even more.

WHO estimates that half of the vaccines are lost internationally due to in-transit waste, theft, or fever.

German shipping company DHL estimates that it will take 15,000 flights to send the COVID-19 vaccine worldwide. It will increase the availability of aircraft and supply of cooling materials such as dry ice to protect vaccines.

“Need to find a bridge” for everyone gap In the cold chain, DHL’s Katja Busch said. “We’re talking about investing … as a society, this is what we have to do.”

Gavi and UNICEF Drone aircraft. Indian authorities have also proposed the idea of ​​securing part of the country’s large food storage system for the coronavirus vaccine.

In countries such as India and Burkina Faso, the lack of public transport is another barrier to protecting citizens before vaccines go bad. When a week-long power outage occurred in parts of Venezuela last year, the country’s largest children’s hospital had to throw away thousands of vaccines due to diseases such as diphtheria.

Returning to Burkina Faso, a few days after the Associated Press reporter visited a health center near the capital, a solar-powered freezer finally arrived. Healthcare professionals are waiting to make sure the freezer works before storing it with the vaccine.

Nationwide, Burkina Faso needs an additional 1,000 medical freezers. Health officials said less than 40 percent of health centers that provide vaccines have working freezers.

If Burkina Faso is vaccinated with one million coronavirus vaccines today, the country will not be able to implement the vaccine program.

Jean-Claude Mubalama is responsible for the health and nutrition of UNICEF’s African countries. “If we had to vaccinate against the coronavirus now, it wouldn’t be possible at this point,” he said.

This is Dorothy Gandhi.

And I’m Jonathan Evans.

The Associated Press reported this story. HaiDo has adapted the story to learn English. George Glow was the editor.

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The words of this story

maintain -v.Provide support and keep something in good condition

chain -n.A series of things connected to each other

nurse -n.A person trained to take care of a sick or injured person

plans -Adjustment Plan at a certain time

Sun -Adjusted sun or related to the sun

distribution -n.The act of delivering something

gap -n.Space where something is missing