The need for efficient medical technology only grows greater by the day.
With previously dormant diseases make themselves known again and more people than ever struggling with easily preventable illnesses, it’s up to medical ingenuity and effective tools to make sure everyone is covered. The medical refrigerator freezer is a staple in all pharmaceutical and emergency room settings, keeping equipment from spoiling by maintaining a careful temperature at all times. Even a minor drop in its settings can put patients in danger. It’s time to take another look at your vaccine refrigerator freezer and make sure it’s prepared for the road ahead.
What should you know about the average pharmacy grade refrigerator?
Despite our best medical advances we are still facing multiple viral outbreaks. Vaccines are designed to provide the body with the resources it needs to protect the immune system against an infection that can cause serious illness, permanent disability and death. The number of measles-related deaths decreased by an impressive 80% since 2000 and 2014 thanks to vaccine upgrades. The World Health Organizations, as well as the Measles and Rubella Initiative, have estimated over 18 million lives have been saved by the measles vaccination since 2000.
There are common misconceptions about vaccinations, however, and this can lead many to avoiding them outright. The U.S. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention estimated further vaccinations could have prevented more than 21 million hospitalizations, as well as 700,000 deaths, among children born in the past 20 years. Vaccinations are not only vital in saving lives and preventing long-term disability. They are also necessary to protect vulnerable aspects of the population, such as the elderly and those with immunodisorders, from experiencing even worse side-effects.
Vaccines have saved lives for over 300 years. Thanks to the hard work of doctors and contributions of volunteers in clinical trials we are able to shrug off illnesses that could otherwise put us at serious risk. Back in the late 1700’s Edward Jenner developed what was known as the ‘arm-to-arm’ inoculation against smallpox. This revolutionary vaccine worked by taking material from a blister of an infected person and injected it into another person’s skin. Large-scale vaccine production, however, would only become possible in the mid 1900’s. These included protection against smallpox, diphtheria and tetanus.
A very common vaccine available today is the flu vaccine. While the flu is viewed as a mundane illness, it can bear a wide host of complications for very young children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. The CDC has estimated as many as 700,000 flu-related hospitalizations, as well as 55,000 flu-related deaths, occurring since 2010. Today over one and a half million people suffer from chronic hepatitis B and a significant number of American children still haven’t received the Polio vaccine.
The medical refrigerator freezer makes sure all vaccines are kept at a certain temperature to maintain their effectiveness. The U.S. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention state frozen vaccines should be stored in the temperature range between -58 degrees and five degrees Fahrenheit. Three simple steps can be taken to make sure your medical refrigerator freezer is always meeting standard. The first is keeping the ideal temperature range at all times, recording daily temperatures at the beginning and end of the workday and taking immediate action should the vaccine storage refrigerators become compromised.
Thanks to vaccines more and more people are able to enjoy long, healthy lives. It’s up to you to make sure your pharmacy freezer is always ready to meet demand.