POST 00992E : COLD CHAIN CAPACITY ASSESSMENT

POST 00992E : COLD CHAIN CAPACITY ASSESSMENT Follow-up on Posts 00965E, 00971E, 00974E and 00980E 15 October 2006 ___________________________________________ NOTE : As posted on our website, we wish to inform you that registration for the upcoming TechNet21 meeting is now closed. Response has been excellent and it is with regret that additional attendees can no longer be accommodated. This posting contains three contributions. The first is from Anil Varshney (mailto:[email protected]) from India. It was originally two contributions that were merged. He also sends the "Cold Chain Volume Calculator" to which he referred in his previous contribution. It is available for download at : http://www.technet21.org/ColdChainVolumes-Varshney.xls . Figures show its use in six districts. The second contribution comes from Alejo Bejemino (mailto:[email protected]) now with UNICEF/Pakistan. He also shares spreadsheets for calculating cold chain capacity requirement used in the earthquake-affected district of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan. It can be downloaded from : http://www.technet21.org/VaccineVolCalEADRoutine.xls (140K) Finally, the third contribution is from Sanzan Diarra (mailto:[email protected]) from Zimbabwe. He refers to two tools that he used. The Cold Chain Capacity Planning Tool was sent to me by Souleymane Koné along with the last revision of the Vaccine Volume Calculator. These tools are not yet official but have circulated and been used in some countries. So you can download them from : http://www.technet21.org/Cold_Chain_Capacity_Planning_Tool_rev06.xls (460K) and http://www.technet21.org/Vaccine_Volume_Calculator_rev06.xls (310K) ___________________________________________ Dear ALL The development and especially the IT power management software is good news. One needs to look at it as well as how it is being implemented in the state and levels at PHC. Difficulties faced ? The success of such a software will save many dollars by way of better vaccine management. For calculating volumes, in the evsm _uzbk, was the external packaging volume taken in consideration while calculating the total volume required since vials are individually packed in paper cartons and these packages in a large box which are kept in cold chain, at the Service delivery point. At a later stage are the vials kept individually regards, Dr Anil Varshney ---------------------------- Dear All, Thanks for sharing the guide for cold chain capacity assessment at regional level. I don't know if anyone has shared the same calculation done at facility level. I would like to share four spreadsheets for calculating cold chain capacity requirement for Muzaffarabad district in Pakistan which was badly hit by Oct 8, 2005 earthquake. The calculation was used as our guide for revitalizing all the EPI facilities that were completely destroyed. Almost all the cold chain refrigeration equipment were totally destroyed beyond repair. Sixty EPI facilities with population data were included in this exercise. 1. Spread sheet 1- Shows cold chain capacity requirement for earthquake affected areas in Muzaffarabad with a vaccine working stock and safety stock of 1 and 0.5 months respectively and calculated for EPI routine only. RHC Danna which has the highest total population was highlighted to show the corresponding quantities in doses and vials of each vaccine in the Pakistan EPI programme. None of the facility has exceeded the 20 liters net vaccine capacity of the ILR unit. 2. Spread sheet 2- just differs from Spreadsheet no. 1 in terms of vaccine working stock and safety stock of 0.5 and 0.5 months respectively. Again RHC Danna was highlighted to show a substantial reduction in the quantities in doses, vials and liters of each vaccine in the Pakistan EPI Programme. 3.Spread sheet 3- shows a combination of routine with vaccine working stock and safety stock of 0.5 and 0.5 respectively and measles campaign only. This time about 26 facilities have exceeded 20 liters net vaccine capacity of the same ILR. 4.Spreadsheet 4- similar to spreadsheet no. 3 but combined with OPV NIDs only. It was observed that only 3 EPI facilities have exceeded the 20 liters net vaccine capacity of the ILR. All the EPI facilities in the earthquake affected districts/areas of Pakistan have been reactivated in terms of EPI activities. Building construction for completely destroyed facilities is still in progress. Facilities with no electricity were provided with solar powered refrigeration units with solar panels mounted on a separate support outside the building or temporary shelter. We know that this guide is not a perfect one however it helps in our cold chain inventory and replacement of old cold chain equipment. Many of the EPI facilities have more cold chain capacity when it comes to routine only but insufficient capacity with the occurence of campaigns and mopping up activities. Hope this helps. Best regards, Alejo H. Bejemino UNICEF-Pakistan -------------------------------------- To TechNet21 readers, Following up on the ongoing discussions on cold chain capacity assessment, I would like to share with you my experience on the subject. As an independent consultant, I recently concluded a 2-month mission in Central African Republic for national cold chain Inventory and assessment. The main points of the terms of reference are as follows: * To carry out the physical inventory and evaluation of the functionality of cold chain equipments in the field at all levels: central store, regional store, district store and health centres. * To check the availability of management tools for cold chain equipments at the different levels. * To check and ensure that cold chain equipment is being correctly used for the right purpose * To constitute a database for cold chain equipment at all immunisation centres and all the facilities involved in vaccines conservation. The database to include: serial number of equipment, date of commissioning, working state, used source of energy and name of the donor agency * To draw the distribution map of cold chain equipment per category and per location. * To determine the cold chain storage capacity at regional, central and national levels and make recommendations on future storage needs. * To make recommendations for improvement of the management system of cold chain equipments. The collection of relevant information took us to 21 out of the 24 health districts of the country, on a health centre to health centre basis. For those districts we could not visit physically, the required information was relayed to us through international NGOs based therein. The “Cold Chain Inventory Toolâ€