The storage of vaccines inside the vaccination room must be between +2°C and +8°C, preferably at +5°C. Ensuring adequate storage of vaccines contributes to their effectiveness and safety.
When a vaccine is exposed to temperatures outside the indicated range (+2°C and +8°C), that is, when there is a break in the cold chain, it is no longer possible to guarantee that this vaccine will have the efficacy proposed by the laboratory. This means that the vaccine will not protect against a certain disease as we hope. In addition, a break in the cold chain also increases the chance of adverse reactions, should this vaccine be used in any patient.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to identify whether there was a break in the cold chain just by looking at the vaccine with the naked eye. For this reason, it is essential to have strict controls and procedures, so that we can guarantee that the conservation of the vaccine has been carried out correctly and, therefore, the efficacy and safety are maintained.
Household refrigerators have been used for many years to store vaccines. Because of this, many studies were carried out to identify which adaptations would have to be carried out in this equipment to minimize the risks of breaking the cold chain.
There were several recommendations for using the domestic refrigerator for this purpose, such as, for example, being a single-door device with at least 180L, replacing the vegetable drawer with full water bottles, not placing the vaccines on the sides or the bottom, having a minimum space of 2cm between vaccines, among other things. All this to try to keep the temperature of vaccines within the recommended range.
However, over the years, equipment was developed specifically for vaccine conservation. It was no longer about adapted domestic refrigerators, we now have high-tech equipment designed to guarantee the quality of vaccines.
These specific equipament are known as specific vaccine storage chambers. Its advantages over the use of domestic refrigerators are many, such as:
There are different advantages that the use of specific chambers for vaccine conservation has over the use of domestic refrigerators. Only with adequate equipment, combined with well-established procedures and trained staff, is it possible to reduce the possibility of failure in the cold chain to practically zero. In addition to the advantages described, it is also important to note that since 2017 the National Immunization Program, through the Cold Network Manual, requires that vaccines be stored in specific vaccine chambers and prohibits the use of domestic refrigerators for this purpose.
Source: Nurse Mayra Moura,
contato@capacitaimune.com.br
