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We are honoured to present results of current vaccine carriers used in Africa, vaccine delivery journey observations and our development of smile.
Accepted paper for oral presentation:
Performance of Existing Last-Mile Vaccine Carriers in a Controlled and Simulated Field Environment
Kitty Liao, Emily Branson, Wei Xiang Ooi, Abellona U
Ideabatic LTD, London, United Kingdom
Presenting author’s email address: kitty@ideabatic.com
Abstract
Effective vaccine delivery is critical for the control of many human, animal and zoonotic pathogens. Despite awareness of the need for cold-chain preservation, vaccine delivery falls short in many isolated regions of the world because of inadequate refrigeration. Specifically, the vaccine cold-chain is often broken at the last miles of the delivery. Current vaccine carriers claim 10 hours of cooling whereas last-mile journeys can take up to 7 days. Vaccines are spoiled during transportation and during immunisation sessions. Two vaccine carriers used for last-mile journeys in Nigeria are tested in laboratory. The experiments are conducted with controlled factors based on real-life vaccine delivery data. The results show the performance of vaccine carriers that have remained closed versus those that have been repeatedly opened and closed to simulate field immunisation sessions. Recommendations on improving the last-mile cold-chain are provided. A novel vaccine carrier is designed to solve current problems and reduce vaccine wastage throughout the last-mile vaccine delivery.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank Dr. Obinna Oleribe at Expert Mangers Organisation and Dr. Matthew Ashikeni at the Primary Healthcare Board of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria for lending us the vaccine carriers. We would like to thank MassChallenge UK, ViiV Healthcare and Expo 2020 Dubai, Institute of Global Health Innovation for funding the project. We would like to thank eHealth Africa and Sokoto State Primary Healthcare Agency of Nigeria for hosting the vaccine delivery visits. Special thanks to cold chain, immunisation and disease control experts at PATH, the WHO, Drs James Wood, Caroline Trotter and Michelle Morters at the Veterinary School at University of Cambridge for their expertise and valuable discussions. Last but not least, we are thankful for Imperial College Advanced Hackspace for their support and testing facilities.