Project Optimize, a PATH-WHO collaboration, would like to highlight successful solar refrigeration programs to guide industry and those considering implementing such a program. Do you know of any success solar refrigeration programs in your country ? YES/NO If YES, could you please give us t...

Dear Editor, UNICEF, in collaboration with WHO and PATH, took a country-wide extensive evaluation of Cold Chain and Vaccine Management in Uganda in 2007. I happened to be the Team Leader for the project. I take the opportunity to attach the report and request you to share it with all TechNet21 me...

The video of the WHO-PDA Parmaceutical cold chain management on wheels course conducted during 2-7 June 2008 in Istanbul, Ankara, Konya, Eskiehir and Bursa (a 1,400 km route), Turkey. [vimeo]8785477[/vimeo]...

Written by: Kevin Pilz, USAID contractor and Bonnie Keith, RHSC Public-health systems everywhere depend upon reliable and efficient supply of medicines and health commodities to ensure positive health outcomes. Despite this, supply chains in low- and middle-income countries are rarely recognized ...

Under the auspices of the UNICEF-led Cold Chain and Logistics Task Force (http://www.unicef.org/immunization/index_42071.html), with a temporary secretariat housed at Project Optimize (http://www.who.int/immunization_delivery/systems_policy/optimize/en/index.html), a group of partners and stakeholde...

by Steve Landry, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Anne Schuchat, CDC; Xavier Tomsej, USAID; Thomas O'Connell, UNICEF; David Lee, Management Sciences for Health, and Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, WHO In July 2010, Optimize convened workshops in Washington, DC and Seattle, WA, to engage a wide range o...

Temperature Monitoring Study To Commence in Vietnam and Uganda by Joanie Robertson, Huong Vu and James Cheyne, PATH While some vaccines will lose their potency if they are stored at temperatures above or below the standard 2° to 8°C, many vaccines are quite heat stable and can tolerate temperatures...

Hi,  I am working with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and we started looking at ways to help a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to increase speed and efficiency in introducing the new rota and/or pneumo vaccines. It is fairly clear that the cold chain capacity needs to be upgraded due to th...

As a result of our posting on Tech Net we were made aware of a technique for melting syringes and suspending the needles in the innards of a plastic block formed by the melting plastic syringes. This technique eliminates exposed needles and reduces the volume of the waste by 70%. The technique is de...

Dear Sir,  We are one of the companies in INDIA making WHO approved cold Chain equipment.  We have a clear policy " Minimum order quantity in 1 nos of any Product"  If you require Ice packs and Vaccine Carriers please do let us know and we would be able supply you your required quantity.  ...

As a part of study aimed towards assessing the magnitude and key drivers of vaccine wastage rate, the general understanding is that wastage rates are typically higher for multi-dose vial vaccines in comparison to single dose vial vaccines. Also, while key drivers of wastage such as expiry, freezing,...

Supply chain assessment reveals opportunities for Vietnamby Nguyen Tuyet Nga and Joanie Robertson, PATH, and Nguyen Van Cuong, NIHE When Vietnam’s National Expanded Program on Immunization (NEPI) and Optimize agreed to explore novel public-sector supply chain solutions for Vietnam, they started with...

Modeling tools under developmentby Tessa Tan-Torres, WHO; Linda Allain, USAID | DELIVER PROJECT; Bruce Lee, University of Pittsburgh; and Carol Levin, PATH If developing countries are to meet their populations’ health needs, they must ensure that their supply chains are able to cope with the increas...

by Janos Maté, SolarChill Project, and Steve McCarney, PATH On March 18, 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalified its first solar direct-drive vaccine refrigerator (Vestfrost model MKSO44). Ten years in the making, the SolarChillvaccine cooler operates with a compressor powered direct...

The World Health Organization (WHO) today released its final draft of Model requirements for the storage and transport of time and temperature sensitive pharmaceutical products for general public review. Review and comment period is open until July 31st, 2010. This long-awaited guideline, prepa...

by Terry Hart and Julian Bilous, consultants, and Osman David Mansoor, UNICEF In 2006, the Government of Japan offered funding to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to help countries prevent and prepare for future influenza pandemics. Recognizing that support from cold chain and logistics ...

Many thanks to Ashley Iwanaga for sending in the latest UNDP GEF Healthcare Waste Management Project report. Dear Colleagues, The UNDP GEF Project on Healthcare Waste Management is excited to share its first Project Update report (in English, French, and Spanish). The goal of the project is ...

Tunisia to demonstrate innovative supply chain solutions for the futureby Patrick Lydon and Ibrahim Abdel Rahim, WHO A new era of immunization supply systems officially got under way on Friday, January 22, 2010, in Tunis, when the Ministry of Public Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and ...

http://www.timesche nnai.com/ index.php? mod=article&cat=General&article=47839 Now vaccines can be stored at room temperature 02.18.2010 (GMT+5.5) London: For the first time scientists at Oxford University have found a way of keeping vaccines stable without refrigeration, even at tropica...

Partners begin effort to envision future supply chain systemsby Brent Burkholder, CDC, and Ibrahim El-Ziq, UNICEF Supply Division In November 2009 at the GAVI Alliance Partners Forum in Hanoi, a group of 43 participants sat down to discuss their vision for future supply chain systems for health. Th...

AVI initiative confronts supply chain shortcomingsby Stefano Malvolti, PATH, and Souleymane Kone, WHO The Accelerated Vaccine Introduction (AVI) initiative will see the first wave of pneumococcal vaccines entering up to 15 GAVI Alliance-approved countries in 2010. Another 11 countries are expected ...

Cold chain and logistics taskforce focuses on interagency cooperationby Osman David Mansoor, UNICEF Programme Division, and Ibrahim El-Ziq, UNICEF Supply Division In November 2009, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) hosted a workshop of the Cold Chain and Logistics (CCL) Taskforce. The pur...

Vaccine Wastage Assessment, India By Ranjit Dhiman / Satish Kumar Gupta- UNICEF India In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Government of India, UNICEF with WHO and partners carried out a vaccine wastage assessment in India. The aim of the study was to understand current vaccine wastage at v...

by Michel Zaffran, WHO; Julie Milstien, consultant; and Modibo Dicko, WHO It has long been known that certain vaccines are stable for long periods of time at temperatures outside the standard cold chain protocol of 2[sup]o[/sup] to 8[sup]o[/sup]C. However, until recently, there have been few rea...

The Lagos State Waste Management Authority organised their fourth Medical Waste Summit, which was held on 26 and 27 October, 2009 at the National Arts Theatre Iganmu, Lagos with the theme “Safe Management of Healthcare Waste: The Time is Now”. This short report on the proceedings has been shared wit...

Managing cold chain equipment is getting easierby Sophie Newland, David Lubinski, and John Lloyd, PATH Introducing newer, bulkier vaccines into a national immunization schedule can be a tricky job for logisticians. Is there enough space? Is there enough equipment? Is it in the right location? Is t...

Fee-based immunization in Vietnam—what can we learn?by Dai Hozumi, PATH, and Nguyen Van Cuong, NIHE While most people in Vietnam receive traditional Expanded Programme on Immunization vaccines free from government-run clinics and health centers, many others elect to receive these and other immunizat...

Information gathered from the Health Ministry through the RTI Act confirms the overall shortage of 17 crore doses for diphtheria, measles, tetanus and oral polio vaccine.The shortage for diphtheria vaccine is nine crore doses, followed by 3.14 crore for tetanus, three crore for oral polio vaccine an...

Are Vertical Supply Chains Still Necessary?by Modibo Dicko, Coordinator, Project Optimize, WHO For the past 30 years, immunization—like many other health programs—has been managed as a vertical program with its own management team, reporting requirements, personnel, and supply chain. Attempts to li...

Today, most vaccines are licensed for storage between 2-8°C, regardless of their true stability. While there are some vaccines that do need to be kept at this specific temperature range, studies have shown that most vaccines are able to withstand higher temperature ranges for a specific period of ti...

by Joanie Robertson, Technical Officer, PATH In March 2009, six companies submitted designs to PATH in response to its Battery-Free Solar Refrigerator Challenge. Product designs that meet desired specifications will receive financial assistance to cover the cost of third-party testing required for...

Oral Polio Delivered Safely Without Icepacks in Recent Study by Ariane Halm, EPIET (European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training), and Olivier Ronveaux, WHO Optimizerecently completed a study with the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office and the Ministry of Health in Mali to ...

Why Optimize?by Daisy Mafubelu, Assistant Director General, WHO Family and Community Health Cluster,and Chris Elias, President and CEO, PATH In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) and PATH jointly launched Optimize, a five-year effort to help countries anticipate and manage the growing complex...

Is That a Toyota Prius in Your Refrigerator? by Steve McCarney, PATH Solar refrigeration has been a promising technology for rural health outposts in developing countries for two decades, but it has one fatal flaw: the batteries tend to die long before the rest of the system is ready to give up. ...

Long-term Cold Storage Containers and Carriers for Heat/Freeze-sensitive Vaccines: Target Performance Criteria by Steve McCarney, PATH Project Optimize, a collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO) and PATH, seeks to develop and galvanize support around a vision for the future of i...

by Steve McCarney, PATH Chihuahua, Mexico, just south of the US border, is so predictably sunny, one hardly needs to consult a newspaper to predict the weather. Chances are it will be sunny and dry. A few hours south, in Mexico City, the weather is more temperate and cloud cover more frequent dur...

Tunisia Explores New Supply Chain Solutions for Health by Patrick Lydon, WHO After several preliminary discussions, World Health Organization (WHO) and PATH will collaborate on a project with the Ministry of Health in Tunisia to demonstrate and validate: (a) approaches that address anticipated ch...

Senegal To Explore Integrated Supply Chains and New Delivery Models by Modibo Dicko, WHO; Dr. Aboubakry Fall, Ministry of Public Health Senegal; and Dr. Ndiouga Diallo, PATH Optimize is discussing an agreement with the Ministry of Health in Senegal to explore several new approaches to supply chai...

Vietnam To Assess and Evaluate Opportunities To Optimizeby Joanie Robertson and James Cheyne, PATH Optimize is drafting a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Health, National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), in Vietnam to possibly implement two phases of work. The first,...

The Supply Chain Management Team within the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT is pleased to announce the availability of a new technical document, Logistics of Health Care Waste Management Information and Approaches for Developing Country Settings You can find the document on the USAID | DELIVER website www...

Dear Colleagues, Below please find information on newly devised incineratorfor healthcare waste and immunization waste developed by healthcare wasteexpert in Tanzania. The incinerator has the following features coupled together: 1) High tech chamber with burner(s), operated at 900C 2) Gas c...

Seychelles injection safety and waste management assessment 25th June-7th July2009 Seychelles is a multi-ethnic tri-lingual state with its origin from three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. It is an upper middle income developing country organised into 25 districts with a 2009 estimated mi...

Hello, I would like to enquire if someone has worked on setting up a manufacturing plant for safety boxes in Africa. If such an attempt has been made, what have the outcomes been. I am assuming the safety boxes are currently being imported from elsewhere. Regards, Abhisheka Jhunjhunwala...

Mojtaba Haghgou and Hailu Kenea write from Islamabad (Pakistan) and share newspaper clippings on the Federal Vaccine Store in Islamabad. The Government of Pakistan is committed to improving the quality parameters of the Federal Vaccine Store located in the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islam...

What service life do you think vaccine refrigerators should be able to provide? For example, some products may suggest a 10 year life while others suggest longer, with typical repairs. PQS requires a 2 year warranty for a vaccine fridge. Solar powered vaccine fridge systems require solar electric mo...

POST 01421E: SYRINGE MELTERS FOLLOW-UP ON POSTS 01406E & 01411E 24 APRIL 2009 ****************************************** Joanie Robertson responds to Hans Everts’s questions regarding how many syringes of a given type can be melted and whether the melter is easily transportable....

POST 01411E: SYRINGE MELTER FOLLOW-UP ON POST 01406E 2 APRIL 2009 ****************************************** In addition to mentioning that the capacity is sufficient and that the melter can deal with 1-3 liters of syringes, it would be useful to know how many syringes of a given type ...

POST 01410E: STUDY ON COOL WATER PACKS 31 MARCH 2009 ****************************************** Umit Kartoglu from the World Health Organisation sends this report on the latest study on cool water packs, i.e. water packs refrigerated between 2°C to 8 °C, and their impact on the cold life...

POST 01408E: NEW PACK-ANIMAL TRANSPORTABLE SOLAR-POWERED REFRIGERATOR 28 MARCH 2009 ****************************************** Many thanks to Joanie Robertson ([[email protected]][email protected][/email]) from PATH for sharing this report with us. She writes: PATH has been aw...

POST 01406E: EVALUATION OF SYRINGE MELTER 22 MARCH 2009 ****************************************** Dear TechNet moderator, I am forwarding a report of an evaluation of a syringe melter conducted in Andhra Pradesh in 2008. The melter was developed by Mike Werner, then of New Paradigm A...

POST 01326E: FUTURE COLD CHAIN TRENDS FOLLOW-UP ON POST 01325E 23 SEPTEMBER 2008 ******************************************* Thanks for the update. This is knowledge worthy being updated, which otherwise I and most of my colleagues in the program did not have. Continue with these efforts...

POST 01325E: FUTURE COLD CHAIN TRENDS 19 SEPTEMBER 2008 ******************************************* On 10 and 11 June 2008, a meeting was held on Cool Chain Technologies for the Future (organized by PATH) at Mijoux, France. Prior to the meeting, discussions were held with cold chain equipme...

POST 01323E: NEW SNAPSHOTS ON COLD CHAIN AND LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT 14 SEPTEMBER 2008 ******************************************* Please see attached the pdf version of the latest in our series called SnapShots, this one is on cold chain and logistics management. It should also be availa...

POST 01307E: HEALTHCARE WASTE MANAGEMENT: NEED FOR TRAINING/SUPERVISION FOLLOW-UP ON POSTS 01295E, 01296E & 01305E 19 AUGUST 2008 ******************************************* Dear Friends, In Developing country settings (like India) Biomedical Waste Management is given low priority...