Cold chain logistics and technologies
As new and more expensive vaccines become available, it is critical that country storage capacity is bolstered to protect temperature-sensitive products from damage and to achieve immunization coverage and impact. Innovative cold chain logistics systems and technologies can help improve the reliability of vaccine distribution, reduce unnecessary wastage of valuable vaccines, and help to strengthen the overall immunization system.
PATH is working with partners to evaluate and improve vaccine distribution and management from a variety of angles. Visit PATH’s website to learn more about its collaboration with the World Health Organization to create forward-thinking strategies and policies to improve immunization logistics. With additional collaborators, PATH is advancing technologies that help to more effectively store, monitor, and transport vaccines (e.g., solar refrigerators that do not require batteries and refrigerators that eliminate the risk of freezing). PATH is also helping to advance a new tool for tracking countrywide cold chain equipment inventories and helping immunization managers to use this evidence base to plan for the arrival of new vaccines.
View resources on cold chain logistics and technologies
Key resources
Improving the Reach of Vaccines to Low-Resource Regions, With a Needle-Free Vaccine Delivery Device and Long-Term Thermostabilization (2011)
An article that describes how dry-coated microprojections, a needle-free vaccine delivery device, can induce efficient immune responses and are expected to be thermostable at elevated temperatures.
Freezing Temperatures in the Vaccine Cold Chain: A Systematic Literature Review (2007)
An analysis that highlights the pervasiveness of accidental freezing across the cold chain and makes recommendations for addressing the problem.
Featured PATH resources
Assessing Retrofit Solutions to Improve Domestic Refrigerator Performance for Vaccine Storage (2011)
A fact sheet
that describes PATH’s work to modify domestic refrigerators to prevent compromised vaccine storage conditions.
An Improved Passive Vaccine Carrier (2011)
A fact sheet that describes PATH’s work to address the problem of vaccines freezing during transport by incorporating phase-change material into vaccine carriers.
Page last updated: May 2012.
