Remote Cellular Stations generate power that they convert to radio waves to provide coverage to their consumers.  Such stations are well distributed throughout countries, and growth projections worldwide are excellent.  Cellular Service providers are actively replacing old diesel generators with renewable energy solutions to improve on service reliability, reduce operating costs, and meet Corporate Social Responsibility objectives.  Meanwhile, cold chain storage points are often in proximity to Cellular stations, and have insufficient power to adequately conserve vaccines.  Are there scenarios in which the cold chain could tap into power from Cellular stations?

US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Teams support EPI

I met the Director of the US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Team in Mali socially in Bamako, and he explained the mission of the US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Team (HAT) as essentially being a technology transfer of Humanitarian Assistance capacity to the country's army in which teams are based. He also explained that other than conducting "Medcaps", events at which they have stands to perform free services ranging from AIDS testing to medical consultations, that they had an avid interest in strengthening immunization and working with the MoH and NGO's, particularly national ones, to reinforce their programs.

In the early 1950s an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred every year.   The vaccine was widely use in the rich countries but it would deteriorate within three days of being taken out of a refrigerator and vaccination in tropical countries was effectively impossible.

Professor Leslie Collier, who died aged 90 this week in London, worked out a way to freeze-dry smallpox vaccine so that it could travel to areas with hot climates. Professor Collier’s re-formulated vaccine was put in 200-dose vials and carried to remote areas with saline solution to re-constitute the powdered vaccine, a pot for boiling needles and two plastic tubes – one for new needles and the other for used needles.

The Cervical Cancer Action (CCA) coalition is pleased to announce the publication of Progress in Cervical Cancer Prevention: The CCA Report Card.

The report card, launched on April 13 during the 44th Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, documents global progress in low- and middle-income countries over the past decade to fight cervical cancer using new, proven, and cost-effective approaches.

When considering which solar vaccine fridge to buy, do purchasers use the results of autonomy or holdover tests to inform their decision?

An effective cold chain is fundamental to the success of vaccination programmes. Millions of dollars' worth of vaccines are stored throughout developing countries in the cold chain at any one time; this amount will increase year on year as countries incorporate newer often more expensive, vaccines into their immunization programmes. Vaccines stored outside 2-8 ^o C lose efficacy and may fail to protect their target population.The result is wasted vaccine and lost lives.^

Starting this week, families in sub-Saharan Africa will finally get a long-term solution against a deadly disease. A new meningitis vaccine called MenAfriVac™ is reaching millions of people in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger beginning today, and neighboring countries will soon follow. This is the first vaccine ever developed to provide sustained protection against the specific strain that causes most outbreaks of bacterial meningitis in Africa’s meningitis belt. More than 450 million people are at risk of meningococcal A meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis, which can explode in large epidemics.  The disease kills one in ten people who get sick, and leaves a quarter of survivors deaf or with other severe disabilities.

How should we select the right model of cool-chain equipment to store and transport vaccines?

Using technical and financial criteria to select the right cool-chain equipment for a robust vaccine supply chain is surprisingly complex.

For discussion, we propose the following considerations as critical equipment selection:

1. Local requirements

2. Equipment prices

3. Life cycle costs

TechNet21 in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese?
See below for all four languages

TechNet21 en anglais, espagnol, français et portugais?
Voir ci-dessous pour les quatre langues

TechNet21 en Inglés, español, francés y portugués?
Vea a continuación los cuatro idiomas

TechNet21 em Inglês, Espanhol, Francês e Português?
Veja abaixo todas as quatro línguas

Disposal of syringes, needles, used bandages, broken equipment and many other items of medical waste remains a challenge in most countries.· The first priority is to dispose of the used equipment where it will do no harm¹ to anyone who happens to come into contact with it.· Throwing out used syringes without being enclosed in a secure safety box and proper disposal of the safety boxes (which is not easy), means that they often end up on an open dump.· Here, there is often someone with a significant incentive to look for anything that can be re-sold – including used syringes.· One study in India showed that rag pickers (people who scavenge rubbish dumps for anything that can be re-sold) receive on average five needle sticks each day from syringes and needles that they are collecting to recycle.· Auto-disable syringes can’t of course be re-used and therefore have no re-sale value back into the medical services either formal or informal.· What about the health rag pickers however?· They are exposed to hepatitis B, HIV, and tetanus infections and who know what else from the needle sticks.