In recent years, various technological advances have been made to improve the quality of vaccine carriers with the capability of increasing access to safe and timely administration of vaccines, especially in underserved regions of the world. These advances have resulted in the development of Freeze-Preventative Vaccine Carriers designed to prevent vaccine freezing during transportation of vaccines especially in remote rural settings. Other features of these freeze free vaccine carriers include simplifying cold box preparation as the ice packs do not require conditioning, and they prevent water from accumulating around the vaccine vials due to use of fewer icepacks.  Independent testing of some of these carriers have revealed vast disparities in efficiencies, capacities, and transformational features. For example, some of these innovations are larger and heavier than the standard cold boxes and, in some cases, some freezing occurred. These disadvantages suggested that further modifications needed to be made to enhance the capacities and efficiencies of the existing generation of freeze-preventative vaccine carriers.

The Introduction and Pre-Qualification of the Gobi Eclipse Freeze Free Vaccine Carrier in 2022 by the World Health Organization (WHO) provided new opportunities for Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) Managers in several low-medium income countries to assess the second generation of Freeze-Preventative Vaccine Carriers in order to enhance vaccine safety, improve ergonomic dexterity when traveling in difficult terrain, and extend cold life in extreme ambient temperature conditions. As a result, Gobi offered some countries in Africa and South America the opportunity to conduct performance evaluations of the Eclipse Vaccine Carrier for improvements in technical features, innovative transformations and heightened functional utilities especially during vaccination campaigns or regular immunization of new born and under five clinics in those same countries.

This case study highlights the opportunities, benefits and challenges of introducing and using the Eclipse, an innovative portable vaccine carrier, into the cold chain infrastructure of public health systems for safe, effective delivery of vaccines up to the last mile in specific African and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) countries.  The discussion includes a brief history of the development of the Eclipse, examination of the approach/methodology used to collect and analyze data, examination of the tools used for data-gathering, review of the results obtained, assessment of measurable findings, benefits, and conclusion.