Do you know why it is so important to get your vaccines?” Claudia asked her 10-year old son, Adil, who sat with her in the waiting room of the local health center in Rio Claro, Trinidad.
“So I can enter secondary school?” he answered.
“And why else, love?”
“So that if I ever get the virus, I won’t need to worry about getting sick. I’ll already be immune to it.”
— January 2024 —
Claudia and Adil had arrived at the health center’s Tuesday morning clinic to get his vaccinations against tetanus and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
The clinic, located in an area prone to power cuts in the east of Trinidad, had recently received a new solar-powered vaccine refrigerator that would maintain the optimum temperature of the vaccines even if the clinic were to lose power due to an outage or natural disaster.
Maintaining temperature is a crucial part of the cold chain – a set of rules and procedures that ensure the proper storage of vaccines from production to storage and distribution, right up until shots get into arms. Adil’s HPV vaccine, for example, had to be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius or it could lose its potency.
Rio Claro was one of 24 clinics in Trinidad and Tobago to receive the new 36-litre capacity, solar-powered refrigerators as part of a joint initiative to strengthen cold chain capacity for storing and transporting temperature-sensitive vaccines. The program, led by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and funded by the government of Canada, was implemented following the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, it has provided solar-powered cold chain equipment to 10 countries in the Caribbean, helping them to expand vaccination into areas without reliable electricity supply.
“Vaccination in Trinidad and Tobago is currently at 94% for the primary vaccines,” Nurse Grace Sookchand, Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) at the Ministry of Health of Trinidad and Tobago, said. But “prior to the initiation of this project, our refrigerators were not really up to standard in terms of meeting or maintaining the cold chain.”
Before the solar-powered refrigerators were installed in Rio Claro, if the clinic received notification that a power outage might occur, staff would have to pack up all the vaccines and transport them to the county health center for storage. However, as many outages are spontaneous, there was concern that if an outage occurred during the weekend, the cold chain may be compromised without anyone realizing.
“Cold chain is one link in the immunization process, but it is the most important link. If you break the cold chain, the potency of vaccines is affected. Therefore, we could be vaccinating persons with vaccines that are not potent and not going to protect them against the disease we want to protect them from,” Nurse Sookchand added.
For Anessa Philip Myers, the district nurse responsible for vaccination at the Rio Claro health center, the new refrigerators have been crucial in ensuring better access to vaccines in remote areas, particularly as many patients find it difficult to visit the center, thus requiring home visits. Ensuring a ready supply of vaccines at the local health center supports more home visits, which are tricky to arrange if they rely on vaccines that must be transported from a regional supply center.
The installation, which was supported by PAHO/WHO, as well as training on how to use the refrigerators, was “pretty easy,” Myers said. “We don’t have to worry about the temperature dropping below two or going above eight degrees. You feel confident knowing you have a fridge that is reliable and dependable.”
Now, even when there has been a power cut, “when a patient visits the health center, they know there will be a vaccine available.”
“The solar powered refrigerator has revolutionized our immunization program in these areas of Trinidad,” Nurse Sookchand added.
The solar-powered refrigeration systems, which come with a 10-year warranty, are a crucial part of ensuring the continuity of routine immunization efforts in remote environments and areas more vulnerable to natural disasters.
As well as Trinidad and Tobago, 10 Caribbean countries have benefitted from the initiative, including Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname. Through its Revolving Funds, PAHO coordinated the procurement, installation, training and delivery of a total of 150 units in 75 health centers.
“As a parent, you want to make sure that your child receives everything they can so they can be healthy and strong,” added Claudia.
“Vaccines provide protection for you and that’s what’s important.”
