The Cold Chain (Vaccine Storage)

Key points

• • The cold chain is the system of storing and transporting vaccines within a safe temperature range, from the place they are made all the way to the person receiving them.
• • Most vaccines must be kept cold (commonly between two and eight degrees Celsius) because heat, and for some vaccines freezing, destroys them.
• • A break in the cold chain can silently spoil a vaccine, so that it looks normal but no longer works, leaving the person unprotected.
• • The equipment includes cold rooms, refrigerators, cold boxes and vaccine carriers with ice packs, arranged in a chain from the central store to the health worker.
• • A vaccine vial monitor is a small label on the vial that changes colour with cumulative heat exposure over time, warning that a vaccine may have been damaged (though it does not detect damage from freezing).
• • Some vaccines are more heat-sensitive than others, and freeze-sensitive vaccines must be protected from freezing as carefully as from heat.