Vaccine Accessibility Challenges in Remote Regions

March 14, 2023

Pharmaceutical Transport

Learn about the challenges of reaching remote areas in the middle of a pandemic.

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The infamous Coronavirus has taken a toll on all of us – the entire planet Earth has been affected by this brutal pandemic. Remote learning and working from home have now been fully introduced, and mask mandates remain in place for many. When the virus began to sweep through the globe, scientists went into high gear with creating an effective vaccine that would halt the spread.

Once the vaccine was created, the next crucial step was getting it to the appropriate facilities to be administered. With a push to distribute COVID-19 vaccines around the world, the necessity of an efficient cold chain is imperative. This may seem like an easy task but can get a bit complicated for some in more remote regions of the world.

The biggest challenge with remote regions is the availability of necessary resources. Proper cold-chain equipment is a must in order to maintain the integrity of vaccines. With a lack of specialized refrigerated trucks, cold-chain packaging, digital technology, the process gets longer and less efficient. Less people are reached.

Tracking, traceability, and temperature monitoring are less reliable, making it difficult to know if the vaccines have been compromised along their journey. What stops were made? Were there any points of exposure to temperatures outside of the required range for an extended amount of time? In previous years, 15–20% of temperature monitoring devices used at the last mile have been non-functional.

In order to effectively distribute COVID-19 vaccines throughout even the most remote parts of the world, we must support the effort to improve these resources. Think outside the box. Advances in technology have made the impossible possible.

The responsibility is on each country to maximize efforts by investing in the proper cold- chain equipment to make it happen. It is possible. Form a plan and implement it.

Coronavirus may have hit us hard, but we are fighting back harder with vaccines to wipe it out. Remote regions have many challenges when it comes to transporting vaccines for accessibility, but improvements can be made. The challenge of getting to everyone, everywhere, can be overcome with the correct action plan and proper resources for transportation. Our scientists created the potion, and now it’s up to us to make it accessible to all.

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