How can it happen that the Department of Health would entrust the vaccines to warehouse operators who are not fully aware of the intricacies of handling and storage of vaccines?
The Department of Health (DOH) reported that 10,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been wasted due to temperature excursions.
To borrow the late Max Soliven’s words in his Philippine Star columns, sanamagan!
In pharmaceutical lingo, this means any temperature reading outside the recommended ranges from the manufacturers’ package insert.
How can it happen that DOH would entrust the vaccines to warehouse operators who are not fully aware of the intricacies of handling and storage of vaccines?
To recall, even while those vaccines have been out of our reach yet (as they had not been manufactured) the DOH repeatedly said it would look for logistics companies and vaccine handlers who can handle the temperature -sensitive and fragile commodity to their best abilities.
And now this!
DOH Undersecretary and National Vaccine Operation Center head Myrna Cabotaje said some 10,000 jabs have already been registered as “wastage.”
Cabotaje said the “biggest wastage” was incurred in a storage facility at a major vaccination site in Filinvest, Muntinlupa City.
This happened even in the National Capital Region (NCR), where so many expert logistics and vaccine handlers are operating.
The temperature in the facility changed reportedly due to mishandling by the local government unit and vaccine safety officers. This resulted in temperature excursion.
Does it not have a pharma expert in the area?
Other causes of wastage
She noted in a radio interview that vaccine wastage also took place when some vials were dropped and were found to have no labels.
The wastage includes the vaccines that were damaged during a fire incident in South Cotabato, and jabs that were spoiled after being left in a freezer that was unplugged in North Cotabato.
‘Small’ volume
Cabotaje said that while 10,000 doses is “small” compared to the more than 40 million doses already administered, it is still regrettable that there is vaccine wastage. I don’t think so. The 10,000 doses could have been used to 5,000 people who wanted it so much.
“It’s too bad. That’s why for every incident, we study the reasons so we can avoid it from happening again. We want to avoid any wastage,” she maintained.
Considering how long we are able to order, pay and get the vaccines in the country, we must avoid wastages and spoilage always.
Dashboard
Based on the National Covid-19 Vaccination Dashboard, a total of 41,247,552 doses were already administered as of Sept. 18.
Of this, 22,771,602 were given as first dose.
There are now 18,475,950 (out of over 108 million people) fully vaccinated individuals in the country.
The goal is to vaccinate 70 percent of the population to achieve herd immunity, a condition wherein even the unvaccinated are protected.
But governments across the globe have raised the target for herd immunity to 80 to 90 percent of their populations.
Tags: #Covid19vaccines, #vaccinewastage, #vaccinestorage, #DepartmentofHealth