Today’s immunization cold chain and supply chain operations have been one of the key elements in expanding the provision of daily immunization services and allowing more people to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. When the PAHO Immunization Unit was established in 1977, both PAHO and national program staff understood that the immunization cold chain was the dorsal column of the program.
To assure that vaccines provide the expected benefits when a patient receives an immunization, epidemiologist and health staff understand that each dose of vaccine administered has to be potent for protecting the recipient against the targeted disease(s). To achieve this objective the Immunization Unit, in PAHO, focused on five pillars:
- advising countries to use good quality refrigeration equipment;
- training of health staff in managing vaccines and their equipment;
- carrying out evaluations on cold chain and supply chain operations;
- carrying out research and development in the area of cold chain technology – both soft and hard;
- improving management capacity and skills to support all operations related to the cold chain and supply chain, to introduce new vaccines.
