GPs are damaging life-saving vaccines

SUELLEN HINDE, health reporter

August 06, 2006 12:00am

Article from: Sunday Herald Sun

THOUSANDS of children across Australia are at risk from = killer=20 diseases because their infant inoculations may not have = worked.

Up=20 to half of all children immunised against diseases such as = meningococcal, polio=20 and diphtheria may not be protected because vaccines are incorrectly = stored and=20 transported.=20

A study has found some local GPs and community nurses use bar fridges = and do=20 not store vaccines at the right temperature.

And many private couriers are freezing drugs by using ice packs = during=20 transport, rendering them useless unless properly thawed.

To be effective, vaccines must be stored at between 2C and 8C from = the point=20 of manufacture to the place where the vaccine is injected.

The study into vaccine transportation and storage was presented at = the 10th=20 national immunisation conference in Sydney this week.

Victorian Immunisation expert Ann Kempe, one of the study's = researchers, said=20 it was a national problem.

There are around 60,000 children born in Victoria each year, with 93 = per cent=20 of them immunised by the age of two. And just over half of these are = done by GPs=20 in the private health sector.

"At the public sector hospitals it is safe, but the problem is when = it gets=20 out into the clinics," Ms Kempe said.

"No amount of technology can improve this. It's the human being that = makes=20 the difference."

The NSW study found that half the GPs used bar fridges and one fifth = of those=20 were damaging the vaccines.

Bar fridges keep vaccines at the right temperature only 55 per cent = of the=20 time.

The study also found that poor storage and transport had made some = adult=20 vaccinations for overseas travel and influenza unviable.

"We have been working to improve immunisation for 10 years," Ms Kempe = said.=20

"But it is all for nothing if the vaccine potency is compromised by = heat or=20 gets cold during the last couple of links in the cold chain.

"For over five years, we have been encouraging surgeries and clinics = to stop=20 using bar fridges to store vaccines.

"But private couriers are not monitoring or transporting properly. =

"Almost all of those vaccines are at risk."

"Thankfully there haven't been (any disease outbreaks) but you can't = be=20 sure," she said.

"We don't know enough. We don't want to risk children's = lives."

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GPs are damaging life-saving vaccines

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