Global Vaccination Paper

Words: 677
Pages: 3

The World Health Organization has been consistently working on immunization programs that have helped the global population tide over some of the diseases that have plagued the communities. There has been an improvement in the indices on all parameters over the years [1].

Encouraged by the success of the various immunization programs, the World Health Assembly in May 2012 approved the Global Vaccination Action Plan (GVAP) [2]. GVAP is expected to be successful in eradicating a wide variety of life threatening diseases such as polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, Haemophilus influenza type b and epidemic meningococcal A meningitis etc., diseases that can be prevented by the usage of vaccinations. These diseases continue to
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From a preliminary research into the above two aspects, prima-facie, it appears that the manufacture of the vaccines does not seem to pose a problem while the logistics of reaching the same to the target population poses a significant challenge.

Our client, Dr. Edward Jenner, from the World Health Organization has approached us to find an efficient way to transport the vaccine vials, especially in countries which lack infrastructure relating to roads, electricity, transport etc., He has requested us to design a device that can primarily
• help in the transport of the vaccine vials so as to cover the 'last mile' connectivity issues. Typically there could be situations where the 'last mile' could mean reaching the target population by foot and could take several hours, and
• keep the vaccine viable for a period of time by maintaining the temperature of the package within acceptable
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Jenner further informs us that the transportation device must not alter the primary vaccine packaging system that is already being used by the WHO. The effectiveness of the vaccines depends largely on the temperature at which they have been stored. We have also been provided with detailed information on the temperature sensitivity of the vaccines. For most vaccines to function effectively for the longest period, they must be maintained in a temperature-controlled environment, where the temperature must be in the range of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. It is pertinent to note here that most vaccines are capable of being effective even if the temperatures vary outside the +2 and +8 degrees Celsius, though the duration of effectiveness gets reduced