United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has distributed 425 solar-powered refrigerators to aid immunisation efforts in Imo State in the last five years.
UNICEF’s Vaccine Security Logistics Officer in the state, Augustine Nwabuisi, disclosed this in Owerri while addressing newsmen to end activities marking the World Immunisation Week.
He highlighted that the refrigerators, which retain a temperature of between +2 to +8, help to maintain the potency of vaccines used for immunisation in the state.
Nwabuisi also said that the refrigerators, used for storage of vaccines, were procured and distributed by UNICEF to primary healthcare facilities across the 27 LGAs of the state.
He added that the UN body operates an Open Logistics Information System for real time monitoring of stock adequacy of vaccines per LGA.
This, he said, was to prevent both overstocking and understocking of vaccines as well as monitor the expiry date and temperature exposure of vaccines at the LGA level.
According to him, UNICEF also donated four incinerators with the capacity to burn up to the rate of 1,000 degrees Celsius for proper disposal of bottles and syringes to safeguard the environment.
“We insist on ‘do no harm’ to the vaccine, environment and health workers, by ensuring adequate service delivery of vaccines and proper waste management.
“UNICEF has built capacity of officers through regular monthly trainings where we do analysis of the work done and give real time feedback to managers at the lower levels,” he said.
He, however called on the state government for counterpart funding for the provision of human resources for optimal utilisation of the equipment, especially the incinerators.
The state’s immunisation officer, Dr Chibuzo Anyaehie, commended UNICEF for funding the logistics for the introduction of the HPV vaccines and supporting rounds one to three of the ‘Big Catchup’ immunisation.
Anyaehie added that UNICEF provides technical support for vaccine security in the state while developing annual operational plans for vaccine delivery and immunisation.
She however called for the replacement of retirees in the state’s workforce to address the paucity of manpower necessary for vaccine delivery and other challenges.
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