Vaccines rank high among the most important medical advances in recent years, although vaccines had their earliest start back in the late 1700s or so. Many statistics are being kept to track the health of Americans and indeed the entire world’s population, and that includes the work of vaccines. For example, the WHO and the Measles and Rubella Initiative estimated that ever since the year 2000, just over 17 million lives have been saved thanks to the measles vaccine, and the number of measles-related fatalities has dropped considerably. Some 546,800 people died from measles in 2000, but by 2014, that figure had dropped to 114,900, a significant 79% decrease in total. Adults and children alike need vaccines to protect them from dangerous contagions ranging from measles to smallpox to Polio, and lab researchers are always hard at work developing new vaccine models. Hospitals may stock many vaccines of their own and distribute them to patients, such as during influenza season.
All of this means having the right storage space for vaccines, including medical refrigerator freezers. These medical refrigerator freezers are designed with delicate vaccines in mind, and pharmaceutical freezers and pharmaceutical grade refrigerators may do something similar. Vaccine freezers and vaccine refrigerators may store vaccines in particular, keeping them at just the right temperature. These medical refrigerator freezer can be found for purchase online, available from wholesale medical sellers for lab staff to buy.
The History of Vaccines
As mentioned earlier, vaccines were first pioneered in the late 1700s. In the year 1796, a man named Mr. Edward Jenner developed what he called the “arm to arm” inoculation method, designed to help patients resist smallpox infections. He did this by obtaining a tissue sample from a cowpox patient’s skin blister and transferring that material to a second patient. In this manner, the second patient’s immune system is trained to fight smallpox and cowpox due to a controlled exposure to such viruses.
Needless to say, this proved effective, and vaccines continued to be used and developed as the years went on. Later, by the 1940s, vaccines entered mass production for the first time, perhaps because many American military personnel were traveling to other parts of the world for the Second World War. Vaccines in the 1940s were geared for common diseases of the day, such as smallpox, tetanus, whooping cough, and Diphtheria. Today, in the 21st century, vaccines cover an even wider variety of illnesses and viruses, including Polio and measles, among others.
Children and adults alike can and should get regular shots to protect them from such diseases. Children’s immune systems are still growing, and in times past, children and babies often succumbed to illness. But today, responsible parents bring in their young children to the doctor for routine shots that protect them from many different viruses, thus saving lives and minimizing the spread of disease in the general population. Adults may get new shots every few years to keep their bodies updated against disease, and the elderly may get shots, too. Senior citizens have age-worn immune systems that may need reinforcements from shots, and this can help minimize the spread of disease in crowded nursing homes and retirement communities. But what about the proper storage methods of those vaccines until they are administered?
Vaccine Storage
Vaccines are sensitive to temperature, but no ordinary fridge or freezer from commercial retailers will do. Regular cooler units are designed with food and drinks in mind, not delicate medical items, and they have unacceptably wide temperature variance when their doors are opened. That would ruin vaccines or tissue samples being stored inside. Instead, the staff of a hospital or a research lab will look to medical supply wholesalers, who can offer medical refrigerator freezers and similar items for sale. Medical grade fridges and freezers store vaccines and tissue samples with precisely controlled temperatures, and these cooler units may vary somewhat in size and shape.
Larger vaccine fridges take up a lot of space, but they are ideal for a large and busy hospital that is administering a lot of vaccines to patients. By contrast, a small research lab with limited room may have a petite freezer or fridge unit installed, such as a lightweight countertop unit. Under-the-counter models can save even more space.