Lusaka, 9th October, 2012 -- The Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Joseph Kasonde has commissioned a National vaccine cold chain store for the Expanded programme on Immunisation with a total capacity of 200,000 litres to serve as a central storage facility and distribution point for vaccines for all the ten provinces in the country.

The facility which houses five walk-in cold rooms including two warehouses is worth 900,000 United States Dollars. This facility has been made possible through support provided for rehabilitation of infrastructure for the cold chain store and two warehouses including the purchase of equipment by the Canadian government and support from the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) and Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) for purchase of five walk in cold rooms.

The World Health Organization provided technical support for the project in order to ensure quality standards and it has also purchased an additional set of cold rooms and a generating set at a cost of 150,000 United States Dollars for the newly established Muchinga Province.

The Zambian Government with assistance from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) is planning to introduce two new vaccines against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus and a second dose of measles. These new vaccines require increased cold chain storage capacity.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health is working in partnership with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other multilateral, bilateral and Non-Governmental Organisations particularly CIDRZ and ARK to expand the cold chain capacity at all levels. A National vaccine cold chain scale-up strategy was developed by government and its partners in 2010.

The Minister of Health, Dr Kasonde commissioned the National vaccine cold chain store on behalf of the First Lady, Dr. Christine Kaseba. In her statement, the First Lady said that Zambia had a high burden of vaccine preventable diseases such as measles, pneumonia and diarrhea and that Government’s mission was to reduce the burden of these diseases by protecting more people through the use of safe and effective vaccines.

She said that between 2001 and 2007, under five deaths in the country reduced from 168 to 119 per 1,000 live births. She said that government would not leave any stone unturned in finding strategies for consolidating gains made in child health. She also said that the National vaccine cold store was an important investment which would accommodate the introduction of new vaccines including pnuemococcal conjugate, rotavirus, measles second dose and the human papilloma virus vaccines (HPV) in the routine immunisation schedule.

The Minister of Community Development, Mother and Child Health Dr. Joseph Katema thanked all the partners for supporting government to expand the cold chain capacity in the country. He emphasized the need for quality standards in the storage of vaccines and that his ministry would take the necessary leadership to ensure proper management of the cold chain infrastructure and facilities in order to ensure that safe and effective vaccines were made available for prevention of diseases.

Speaking at the same function, the WHO Representative Dr. Olusegun Babaniyi commended Government for the strong leadership and ownership it has demonstrated in improving immunization services. He said that Immunisation had contributed immensely to the improvement of child health indicators in the country. Dr. Babaniyi said that more recent estimates by WHO showed that Zambia was among the 13 countries in Africa which were on track to meeting MDG no. 4.

He said that cold chain and logistics was a critical component of any successful national immunization programme and that it was important to support the government in ensuring that the best cold chain facilities were available at all levels particularly that new vaccines were being introduced in the routine immunization schedule.

Present at the function were; representatives from government ministries and departments, United Nations agencies, Bilateral and Multilateral Donors, Non-Governmental Organisations including research and academic Institutions and the media.

For more information contact:

Nora Mweemba, Health Information and Promotion Officer.

WHO Country Office, UN ANNEX BUILDING, Plot 4609, Corner of Andrew Mwenya and Beit Roads, Rhodes Park, P.O. Box 32346, Lusaka, Zambia., E-mail: mweemban [at] zm.afro.who.inttarget="_blank", GPN: 37609, Tel No: 00-260-211-255 398 / 255 336 / 255 322, Mobile : 260 - 977873976, Fax: 00-260-211-252863