Vaccine Storage and Handling Toolkit
Full Review

Reviewed by: Dr. Mary Elizabeth Miranda, DVM, DVPH, Former World Health Organization, Public Health Specialist, Philippines
Review posted 22 May 2006
Review No. 78

CD-ROM Information

Content: The "Vaccine Storage and Handling Toolkit" CD-ROM offers everything health providers and health policy officials need to know about vaccine storage and handling prodedures and best practices.
Publication Date: 8 June 2004
Audience: The CD-ROM content is aimed at healthcare workers involved in all levels of a national immunization program. It is likewise useful for administrators as it includes guiding principles and policies for an effective vaccine delivery program.
Producer: Centers for Disease Control and Preventioin (CDC)
Size: 523MB
Price: Free
Manual needed: No
How to order:

Order online.*
(item number 99-6711)

*This link takes you outside the ADBI website. Please use the back button to return to ADBI.org.

Back to Top

Full Review

Content

Overall, this is an excellent tool for healthcare providers involved in the delivery of immunization services for prevention and control of vaccine preventable diseases. It is useful in assisting healthcare practitioners develop effective policies for managing vaccine supplies and service delivery. As a health information resource the content is particularly useful in strengthening essential capacities for vaccine providers in the health care system involved in the delivery of immunization services.

The CD-ROM information is organized into three parts: the toolkit manual, videos with subtitle options, and printable information and education resources. The toolkit manual contains 11 chapters detailing most, if not all, aspects of vaccine storage and handling. 

1. Introduction - This chapter briefly reviews the central role of vaccines in prevention and eradication of vaccine-preventable diseases. It emphasizes the need to maintain the integrity of vaccines and explains why this matters. It also underscores the costs associated with avoidable errors in storage and handling.
2. Cold Chain - This chapter explains the principles of cold chain maintenance and how it affects the integrity of vaccines in storage. The content emphasizes essential information on issues related to the burden of cold chain failure.
3. Vaccine Storage and Handling Plans - This chapter details the routine and emergency plans that should be in place in healthcare settings, including all aspects of routine vaccine management, and emergency vaccine retrieval and storage.
4. Vaccine Personnel - This chapter describes the roles and responsibilities of primary and back-up vaccine coordinators and other staff, and outlines the training they require for routine and emergency procedures.
5. Vaccine Storage Equipment - This chapter enumerates all the equipment necessary for storage of vaccines from the simplest logbook to the different types of thermometers to refrigerators and freezers to backup power supply. This illustrates where to place the equipment, and how to set, stabilize, and maintain each one.
6. Vaccine Storage Practices - Step by step best practices for storing live, inactivated and lyophilized vaccines are described, including correct locations and positioning, labeling, storage containers to ensure constant proper storage conditions.
7. Temperature Monitoring - This chapter shows how health care workers should check and record, review logs, note equipment failure, and use alarm systems.
8. Storage Troubleshooting - This chapter outlines the immediate actions that must be taken in every possible situation of malfunction or deviation from normal storage operations.
9. Selected Biologicals - This chapter lists 14 selected biologicals, each with a description of the following: shipping requirements, condition upon arrival, storage requirements, shelf life after opening or reconstitution, instructions for reconstitution or use, and other special instructions.
10. Vaccine Inventory Management - Vaccine quality management includes ensuring vaccine access, monitoring of expiry dates, stock rotation, inventory accounting, vaccine stock calculations and ordering is discussed. The section also reviews procedures for inventory accounting of vaccine supplies.
11. Vaccine Shipments - The components of shipping vaccines described here include standard operating procedures for receiving and unpacking, transporting vaccines to off-site clinics, and shipping back to health department or manufacturer.
12. Vaccine Preparation and Disposal - This chapter describes the proper reconstitution, dating vaccines, use of multi-dose versus single dose, pre-filled syringes, and disposal of vaccine and diluents.

There are also two videos that demonstrate the procedures laid out in the toolkit and that highlight the top ten vaccine handling errors by healthcare workers. Additional information and education resources include samples of multimedia training materials, instructions, checklists, signs, and posters that can be printed and reproduced.

The manual is an important tool for all vaccine providers to understand what it takes to maintain vaccine integrity and why it matters. It is designed to reinforce, not replace, national or state health policies. Even though these comprehensive guidelines mainly target an American audience, the information is practical and is adaptable to other users. It must be noted, however, that the CD-ROM content assumes that users are at a higher level of resources and capacities than what one would generally find in less developed countries in Asia. With this in mind, the content would be even more effective if best practice alternatives were included for settings with limited resources. Similarly, the manual could be further simplified for users in Asia and Pacific countries where many vaccines included are not readily available or accessible for public health services.

Back to Top

User-friendliness and Interactivity

The components of the CD-ROM are clearly listed on the opening page and can be readily accessed. All chapters of the toolkit and the resources are in easily printable formats. Two videos, one running for 22 minutes and the other 8 minutes, are both clear and give concrete examples and demonstrations of the issues being discussed. These videos also include versions with closed caption or subtitles.

There is an interactive game about the cold chain in this section that is difficult to launch off-line, perhaps because it is 75MB. Downloading it online also takes a lot of time; about 55 minutes on a broadband connection. The game could be packaged in a smaller, more concise file that is easier to use.

Back to Top

Distribution

The CD-ROM is free and can be accessed via the CDC website.*  

Back to Top

Sustainability

The CD-ROM includes both the most basic and most advanced information on best practices for vaccines storage and handling in the full text of the toolkit. However, as new issues arise some of the guidelines contained may need to be updated or replaced as more specific information especially on practical issues on delivery of vaccination services becomes available.

*This link takes you outside the ADBI website. Please use the back button to return to ADBI.org.

Post a Comment

We welcome your feedback on either this CD-ROM or the review. Post a comment. ADBI is not obliged to acknowledge or publish comments and may abridge or edit them before web posting.

Comment(s)

There are [0] comment(s) for this entry. Post a comment.