First pioneered in the late 1700s, vaccines stand among many medical developments and inventions that save many lives every single year. Designed to bolster the human body’s immune system against infectious disease of all sorts, vaccines are known to save many lives around the world every single year, in the United States and elsewhere. Children and adults alike receive these vaccines to keep them and their communities safe from dangerous diseases, and a child’s developing immune system may need this boost while adults may need an update. Even the elderly often receive vaccines to keep them healthy, since their age-worn immune systems may not fight off infections as well. Of course, these fragile vaccines also need proper storage before use, an they are sensitive to temperature. For this reason, a laboratory freezer or a vaccine freezer unit will be used, and a medical fridge freezer can do a lot of good for a research lab or a hospital with vaccines on site. Wholesale lab refrigerator units or laboratory freezers can be found online with medical suppliers, and a lab’s staff may find just the unit they need.
Vaccines Then and Now
Vaccines as we know them were first innovated in 1796, when a man named Edward Jenner developed what he called the “arm to arm” inoculation method against smallpox. He did this when he drew a tissue sample from the skin blister of a cowpox patient, then transferred that sample to the arm of a patient. That patient’s immune system was then “trained” to fight off cowpox, smallpox, and related disease, protecting them from such infection. This proved successful, and vaccines continued to be refined and enhanced over the decades. By the 1940s, large scale production of vaccines began in earnest, and they often protected patients from common disease of the time such as smallpox, whooping cough, Diphtheria, and tetanus. Now, in the early 21st century, vaccines cover an even wider swath of dangerous diseases, including measles and Polio as well. Once-common diseases are now a relative rarity.
Plenty of statistics and trends show how effective vaccines are at preventing fatalities from disease, and measles may serve as a fine example. The World Health Organizations, as well as the Measles and Rubella Initiative, have determined that some 17.1 million lives have been saved due to the measles vaccine since the year 2000. In particular, a total of 546,800 measles-related deaths took place in 2000, but by the year 2014, this figure dropped down to 114,900. That is a 79% decrease in measles fatalities, a considerable amount. As a whole, vaccines prevent around 2.5 million unnecessary (as in preventable) deaths every single year, and that’s more than the population of some entire cities. These vaccines are highly effective, but medical professionals will need the right storage solutions for them. This is where a laboratory freezer or fridge unit will be useful.
Vaccine Storage Done Properly
A laboratory freezer or a vaccine fridge unit is no ordinary cooler unit. Commercially available fridge and freezer units do have enough room to store vaccines, but they are designed for storing food and drinks, not delicate vaccines. These units have an unacceptably wide temperature variance as they are opened and closed, which would ruin vaccines stored inside. Instead, a medical grade laboratory freezer or fridge unit will be employed, and thee can be found from medical supply wholesalers. A vaccine refrigerator may store its contents at the recommended temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and a freezer unit will store vaccines at a temperature ranging from -58 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, as per guidelines.
When on the market for fridge units, a lab’s staff should consider their available space and how many vaccines they have on hand. They may have limited floor space or a small or very large inventory of vaccines, and these are factors to consider. A too-large fridge unit is a waste of money and space, and a too-small one can’t even store everything. Larger labs have ample floor space for a sizeable freezer, while smaller labs may make use of small, light units that can be stored on a shelf or on a counter. Some freezers are under-the-counter models to save even more room if need be, making them quite convenient.