Kenya: Solar-powered freezer boosts immunization rates in hard-to-reach rural villages (IPS)

| May 1, 2023

Download this story

News Brief

In the semi-arid southeastern Kenya region of Makueni County, some villages are far from the Makindu sub-county hospital, and from the nearest electricity grid. Without equipment to store vaccines and drugs in a temperature-controlled environment, vaccination coverage in the villages was well below 25 per cent. But all that changed in February 2019. The donation of a solar-powered freezer to the Kamboo health centre significantly improved availability and access to vaccinations as well as maternal health services in the area. At Kamboo health centre, the measles immunization rate is 100 per cent and includes additional clients outside the catchment area. Overall immunization coverage is at 95 per cent. At Ndalani dispensary, the immunization rate for measles is also high and the overall vaccination rate for standard vaccines is 50 to 65 per cent. Healthcare providers say the freezer has transformed the delivery of mother and child services in the area by bringing critical immunization services closer to a marginalized and highly vulnerable community.

In the semi-arid southeastern Kenya region of Makueni County, Kamboo, Yindalani, and Yiuma Mavui villages are far from Makindu sub-county hospital, and also far from the nearest electricity grid. Until 2019, nurses in three health facilities struggled to bring critical health services closer to the hard-to-reach population scattered across these three remote, far-flung villages.

Benson Musyoka is the nurse in charge of Ndalani dispensary in Yindalani village. He says that, without equipment to store vital vaccines and drugs in a temperature-controlled environment, vaccination coverage in these villages was well below 25 per cent.

Babies were delivered at home because mothers could not raise $6 to 12 US to hire motorbike taxi, the only means of transportation in the area. Others could not reach the hospital in time to deliver.

Mr. Musyoka adds: “Every morning, I would collect vaccines at Makindu sub-county hospital and transport them inside a vaccine carrier box to Ndalani dispensary.” The vaccines are only viable for six hours inside the carrier box, at which point unused doses must be returned to storage at Makindu sub-county hospital or disposed of.

But all that changed in February 2019. The donation of a solar-powered freezer to the Kamboo health centre significantly improved availability and access to vaccinations as well as maternal health services in the area.

Francis Muli, the nurse in charge of the Kamboo health centre, says that without a fridge or freezer, “you cannot stock oxytocin, and without oxytocin, you cannot provide labour and delivery services.”

Usungu dispensary and Ndalani dispensary are both located 10 kilometres away from Kamboo health centre, but in different directions. With the solar-powered freezer, nurses in charge of the facilities no longer need to make the long journey to and from Makindu to collect and return unused vaccine doses on vaccination days.

Antony Matali is the nurse in charge of Usungu dispensary in Yiuma Mavui village. He says: “We collect vaccine doses from Makindu sub-county hospital at the beginning of the month and store them in the freezer at Kamboo health centre. The freezer is large enough to store thousands of various vaccine doses collected from the sub-county hospital for all three facilities.”

Two to three times a week, Mr. Matali and Mr. Musyoka collect doses of various vaccines. The vaccines are transported to their respective dispensaries in a carrier box that can hold up to 500 doses of different vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines. All three facilities have significantly improved immunization coverage from a low of 25 per cent.

At Kamboo health centre, the measles immunization rate has achieved the target of 100 per cent and now includes additional clients outside the catchment area. Overall immunization coverage is at 95 per cent, well above the government target of 90 per cent.

At Ndalani dispensary, the immunization rate for measles has also surpassed the target of 100 per cent with patients from four surrounding villages and neighbouring Kitui County receiving services at the dispensary. The overall vaccination rate for all standard vaccines is 50 to 65 per cent.

In the Usungu dispensary, the vaccination rate for measles is 75 per cent, and for vaccines for other diseases, around 50 per cent. Mr. Muli says that a cold chain or storage facility such as a solar-powered freezer is the cornerstone of any primary health unit in cash-strapped rural settings, and services related to mother and child are the pillars of any health facility. Without these services, he says, all you have is brick and mortar.

The Ministry of Health has a target of vaccinating at least 1.5 million children annually against vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, polio, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, and pneumonia. Currently, one in six children under one year does not complete their scheduled vaccines.

Healthcare providers say the freezer has transformed the delivery of mother and child services in the area by bringing critical immunization services closer to a marginalized and highly vulnerable community.

This story is adapted from an article written by Joyce Chimbi for Interpress News Service, titled “Solar Powered Freezer Improving Immunization Coverage in Hard-to-Reach Rural Villages.” To read the original article, go to: https://www.ipsnews.net/2023/03/solar-powered-freezer-improving-immunization-coverage-hard-reach-rural-villages/

Photo: Benson Musyoka rides his motorcycle from Kamboo health centre to transport vaccines to Yindalani village. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS