A FAST, EFFICIENT SOLUTION FOR VACCINE DELIVERY: A NEW REFRIGERATED PICK-UP IN EASTERN CAMEROON.
Logistical support from UNICEF, funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with technical assistance from GAVI, is facilitating the transportation of vaccines in the eastern region.
The new refrigerated pick-up is hard to miss. Its shiny wheels and brand-new tyres handle the steep roads of the Eastern Region with ease. This refrigerated pick-up, serving as a mobile cold storage unit, has revolutionized the transportation of vaccines in the 14 health districts of the Eastern Region of Cameroon.
“For the East Region, this pick-up is a great asset in the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases…” said Dr. Carine Ndonnang, Head of the Vaccines, Medical Consumables and Cold Chain Warehouse for the East Cameroon Region.
Before the arrival of this refrigerated truck, health districts had to travel to the regional warehouse in challenging conditions to collect vaccines. Health district staff had to journey from the region to the districts, and even to some health facilities, in difficult and very risky conditions.
The Birpondo integrated health centre is located 2.4 km from Bertoua, which is about a 45-minute journey. The centre has an unpaved road, making transportation precarious and full of obstacles. Over the years, the centre has faced challenges in transporting vaccines, often resulting in accidents and destruction. This situation is just one example of the difficulties faced by health districts like Moloundou, 600 km away, Lomié, 200 km away, and Nguelemendouka, 180 km away, which have no vehicles for delivering vaccines.
Mrs Yene Yene Albertine, the head of the Birpondo Integrated Health Centre, outlines the reasons for the increased shortage of certain vaccines in remote areas.
“(…) Since we are located far from the district, we often face difficulty in accessing vaccines. You see, being situated out of town, we can go for more than an hour without finding a motorbike to get to the health district. This poses a lot of problems for us in obtaining vaccines.”
Dr. Carine Ndonnang recalls those challenging times without nostalgia. She mentioned that there were risks of equipment deterioration and destruction.
“The vaccine could fall off a motorbike and break due to the long distances, which often caused vehicle breakdowns, resulting in the vaccine no longer arriving in good condition”, she said
Given the challenging packaging and distribution of the vaccine in Cameroon, UNICEF, in collaboration with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, technical partner GAVI, and the UPS Foundation, has supplied the Ministry of Public Health with 14 refrigerated pickups, one dry lorry, and four vehicles to manage the 25 cold storage facilities across the 10 health regions. This donation is greatly appreciated by the frontline workers in the East region, who are tirelessly advocating for a consistent and ongoing supply of vaccines for children.
“ This refrigerated pick-up is no different to our cold store, it can hold all the vaccines in the region. It allows the vaccine to be accessible and available. It also improves the means of transport and we’ll have a vaccine that’s well preserved, at an ideal temperature (+2+8) and we can be sure that the vaccine that arrives in the health districts is a quality vaccine”, said Dr. Carine Ndonnang
The refrigerated pick-up not only reduces the risks to health workers but also can supply vaccines to the most remote and least developed areas of the East region. Mrs. Yene Yene expressed her relief and gratitude, saying,
“I thank UNICEF for thinking of us. Today, we can place orders, and the vaccines will now come to us at our sites.”
Written by Abraham Diboum, Dr. Noël Vogue and Marie Guy Bandolo
