In February 2024 the University of Birmingham announced that a project to use “powerful digital tracking and accountability technology” to determine the “precise burden of open- and closed-vaccine vial losses”, understanding how and where these losses occur. The project started in December 2023 in collaboration with the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES), Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Circulor, and Crown Agents. The study takes place in the Rwamagana District in the District Hospital and 16 Health Centres in the network.
Cold-chain interruptions
A statement from the university reflects that vaccines must be “carefully stored and transported” within a controlled temperature range, often between 2°C and 8°C. This cold chain is “uninterrupted from vaccine manufacture and throughout the country-wide distribution networks” to keep vaccines “effective up to the point of use”.
The new project will explore the burden and occurrence of vaccine vial losses:
- Open-vial losses – when there are not enough individuals to vaccinate after giving the first dose from a vial, so the leftover unused doses need to be discarded
- Closed-vial losses – the loss of a whole vaccine vial before being opened, usually due to physical damage, vaccine expiry, or loss of temperature control at some stage of the chain (can cost up to 6-10 doses at a time)
Professor Toby Peters from the University of Birmingham, Co-Director of the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, stated that “an estimated 25% or more” vaccine doses are “compromised by failures in cold chain custody”. With the VaccMap project he hopes to “get a better understanding of where these losses occur in the Rwandan cold chain”. This would allow prevention and design of better cold chain systems in the future.
“The vaccine cold chain underpins vaccine policy and is part of any country’s critical national infrastructure. This cold chain is vital for every birth in every country in the world. However, 20% of African children do not receive a complete immunisation schedule and more than 30 million children under five years old suffer from vaccine-preventable diseases every year, 68% of which are in Africa.”
Preparing to implement new technology
Associate Clinical Professor Christopher Green, Principal Investigator for the study, is excited by the new vaccine technologies that were “accelerated” during the pandemic and are being “re-designed to target many major outstanding global health priorities”.
‘This study is very important in our wider work to prepare African healthcare systems for the deployment needs of these technologies and manage the concurrent challenges caused by climate change. We have excellent collaborations from our project partners for this difficult problem.”
The software that the team is using was developed by Circulor and was originally designed to track components for car batteries through supply chains. The Circulor team modified their technology for use in vaccine supply chains, recording the life of every vaccine vial to “build an accurate real-world picture” of how to “strengthen vaccine security and efficiency”.
If you’re interested in vaccine supply chains and logistics, do join us for our dedicated track at the Congress in Washington this April by getting your tickets here, or subscribe for more vaccine insights.
