Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Half of vaccines are binned - 'fridge-free' versions could change that
A vaccine is a medical treatment that helps our body's immune system
recognize and fight disease. Vaccines are effective against many serious,
life-threatening viral and bacterial diseases, including measles, chickenpox,
rotavirus, polio, rabies, influenza, and COVID-19. To ensure their efficacy and
safety, most vaccines require strict temperature control called “cold chain” from
the moment they are shipped until the time they are injected into a recipient’s
arm. Keeping vaccines at a certain temperature is quite difficult, especially in
poor, remote, or conflict areas.WHO estimates failures in this cold chain requirement are a major factor
in half of all vaccines being wasted or disposed of globally. Recently, scientists
in the UK trialled a fridge-free version of the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine successfully.
They kept it as a dry powder at room temperature for a year, mixed it with
water, and injected it into volunteers’ arms. The dry-powdered version of the
vaccine gave equivalent immune responses to the refrigerated vaccine. Since many
other vaccines can be stored in the same way, this new approach might substantially
reduce vaccine waste, allowing more people to receive injections while reducing
transportation and storage costs.
Read the article and learn about this breakthrough approach for vaccine
storage.
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