Health Ministry to install solar-powered cold chain fridges in health centers

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health has started installation of solar–powered cold chain refrigerators, in a move that officials say will help save the millions of doses of vaccines that go to waste every year.

While flagging off the equipment, Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said the fridges, which are a donation from the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) and MasterCard Foundation will be installed in five hundred health facilities with priority being given to those currently experiencing challenges with hydro power or those in areas that are off the national grid.

Aceng further explained that the 500 fridges, which will all be ready for use after two months of installation, have been donated together with 1746 remote temperature monitoring devices to monitor the functionality of the equipment from the centre.

The new donation follows another similar donation of 38 fridges by the Africa CDC last year, which were deployed in the newly formed cities.

According to Yovan Wolman, the Chief Child Survival and Development Officer at UNICEF, the new donation worth 4.3million dollars is part of a bigger project of saving lives and livelihoods.

Wolman said while Uganda had made efforts in improving access to vaccines, in some areas, there are still pockets of children missing their doses due to challenges, including poor storage, which makes some go bad before being used.

Meanwhile, with Uganda recently adding the malaria vaccine to its routine immunisation schedule, it has become one of the countries with the highest number of vaccines offered routinely at fourteen.

Aceng, however, mentions that sustaining high immunisation coverage has been a challenge, especially since the country also has a high fertility rate with over a million babies born each year, adding to the number that needs routine vaccines.

The Ministry of Health could not share estimates of vaccines wasted each year. But, study results released by Makerere University School of Public Health showed high rates of wastage in selected parts of the country.

The research was conducted in Mukono and Kalungu districts, where the scientists assessed wastage rates of six essential vaccines: BCG against tuberculosis, Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV), pneumococcal vaccine (PCV), Measles –Rubella (MR) and DPT–HepB–Hib.

Findings published in the Global Public Health journal show that vaccine wastage rates were far above national and WHO-recommended thresholds, whereby BCG wastage stood at 70%, MR at 58%, IPV at 31%, OPV 28%, and PCV 17%.

General guidelines for vaccine wastage rates (VWR) recommend different acceptable rates for different vaccines: 50% for BCG and 25% for reconstituted measles vaccine, 10% for OPV, 15% for liquid vaccines in multi-dose vials containing 10 or more doses, and 5% for liquid vaccines in single or two-dose vials like PCV.

One of the reasons for wastage cited in this research was poor storage.

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