SA gets huge cold-chain equipment boost to store vaccines and vital meds

SA will have the relief of storing vaccines and other life-saving medicines in new multimillion-rand cold-chain equipment, thanks to a collaboration between the health department and Vodacom Group. 

This follows the donation of R74m by Vodacom and Vodafone Foundation to procure the cold-chain equipment to ensure safe storage and delivery to several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Vaccine storage remains a challenge for many countries on the continent. A recent survey of 34 African countries by the African regional office of the World Health Organisation revealed that in 31% of countries, more than 50% of their districts have challenges with cold-chain capacity, which makes vaccine rollout difficult. 

Cold-chain management is a crucial part of ensuring a safe and effective inoculation drive.

Vaccines need uninterrupted refrigeration to meet certain temperature requirements, from the place of manufacturing until the point of administration.

If the cold chain is broken at any point, it may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, which means they become potentially unsafe for immunisation.

“As the government, we appreciate the continued support from the business sector since the outbreak of the pandemic, and believe this huge contribution by Vodacom Group will go a long way in safeguarding vaccines from avoidable loss,” says health minister Dr Joe Phaahla.

“However, we now need to intensify vaccine-demand creation to ensure that our people continue to come forward in numbers to vaccinate and get booster shots for the country to reach population immunity.” . 

“We are pleased to be able to work closely with the national department of health and support the vaccine rollout programme, ensuring that much-needed Covid-19 vaccines reach vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities,” says Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub.

“Moreover, the cold-chain equipment, which includes freezers, refrigerators, cold boxes and carriers, can also assist government beyond the COVID-19 pandemic with the storage and distribution of other life-saving vaccines, including those used for child immunisations.”. 

The procurement of the life-saving equipment was managed through the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, established by the AU support of the Africa vaccine strategy.

The health department is at the forefront of distributing the cold-chain equipment across the country, including dispatching it to remote areas that don’t have the infrastructure required for extended vaccine refrigeration. 

Vodafone Foundation funded the delivery of 690 cold-chain units, which were allocated to Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Tanzania. Vodacom Group has also donated 2,197 cold-chain units in SA.

This article was paid for by Vodacom.