When Viet Nam wanted to rapidly roll out COVID-19 vaccines in remote communities in Thanh Hoa Province in late 2021, there was a problem.
Many of the province’s 500 commune health centres, which serve the population of 3.7 million people, did not have fridges, or had old fridges that could not reliably keep COVID-19 vaccines at the necessary temperature of between +2 °C and +8 °C. Refrigeration is an essential part of the cold chain – the process of manufacturing, storing, and distributing vaccines at temperatures that maintain their potency and safety.
Instead, health workers used motorbikes to drive several hours each way to a district hospital to pick up just enough supplies for one day’s vaccination campaign in mountainous villages. Trips had to be repeated each day, with health workers losing precious time to transport, rather than care.
Despite these challenges, which were repeated in many of Viet Nam’s provinces, the commitment of local health workers, backed by strong government leadership, ensured the roll-out of the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines quickly, safely and at scale, with vaccines reaching every corner of the country to protect those most vulnerable.
Still, the COVID-19 pandemic brought lessons that could be applied to other challenges, and to strengthen the primary health care system.
Most urgently, the pandemic also brought setbacks to routine immunization coverage for children, resulting in many children missing the routine vaccines that keep them safe from deadly diseases such as measles, diphtheria, and polio. With the end of the emergency phase of the pandemic came the urgent need to do catch-up vaccinations for many children in Viet Nam who missed out on their routine immunization.
The lack of fridges also slowed catch-up immunization for children. To help accelerate this programme and strengthen the capacity of commune health centres, the World Health Organization (WHO), with funding from the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) delivered 200 fridges to Thanh Hoa Provincial Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The hardware was accompanied by training for commune health workers in maintaining the fridges to keep vaccines at the correct temperature, as well as data collection, disease surveillance and reporting. A further 54 fridges are being procured for Dak Lak Province.
Thanh Hoa and Dak Lak Provinces were identified as particularly in need because of their high populations living in poverty, often in remote, hard-to-reach locations. Health partners, notably UNICEF, are helping improve the cold chain in other provinces.
WHO Viet Nam Representative Dr Angela Pratt said, “These fridges are more than just another appliance in commune health centres. They are helping accelerate the big catch-up on routine immunization and break down barriers to equal access to life-saving immunization for babies and young children in remoter areas. They will help ensure every child receives all of their routine immunizations now and in the future.”
This initiative is part of WHO’s work to support the Government of Viet Nam to build on lessons learned from the pandemic to strengthen the health system and health security for the future.