Manish Mehra, a vaccine cold-chain handler at the Phanda’s Primary Health Centre (PHC), which doubles up as a cold chain point too, is excited about the ‘eVIN’ (electronic vaccine intelligence network), an indigenously-developed technology that has made management of vaccine stocks much simpler for him.
He explained that unlike earlier when a lot of time was wasted in ensuring day-to-day management of vaccine stock, sometimes leading to wastage and overstocking or stock out, the eVIN, a mobile and web app, is helping address vaccine logistics such as where they are, whether they are in adequate quantities and stored at recommended temperaturesIJ
Just a few kilometres away, at another cold-chain point at Vidisha district hospital in Madhya Pradesh, Neelam Bhaskar, a staff-nurse cum vaccine cold-chain handler said that she does not have to worry even when she’s not in office. “For instance, if there is electricity cut I get SMS alerts on eVIN about temperature fluctuation. I take immediate action.
“Or for instance, with eVIN, launched two years ago, we get to know online when a particular vaccine is about to expire. We can ask for vaccines from one cold chain point to another and ensure there is no wastage,” she added. As India aims to achieve full immunization coverage under its Mission Indradhanush, the Union Health Ministry is pinning hopes on eVIN to help it ensure that every child and pregnant women gets timely and safe doses.
Need for such projects have always been felt in the country like India which is home to the world’s largest birth cohort of over 27 million. Of these, 7.2 million children ie 30 per cent miss the benefits of full immunization annually. Under UIP, ten types of vaccines are being provided to infants, children and 30 million pregnant women to prevent certain diseases.
A critical component of immunisation programme is the vaccine supply chain and cold chain -which play a key role in keeping vaccines safe and efficacious from the stage of manufacture to eventual delivery to the patient.
Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, MP, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have already started online tracking with the help of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), an implementing agency on behalf of the Union Health Ministry. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telagana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will be brought under the eVIN ambit soon.
So far, UNDP has trained about 17,000 government staff including cold chain handlers, vaccine store keepers and data entry operators in 12 States. The project has financial support from the GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
Under the project, mobile devices or electronic monitoring machines have been distributed to cold chain handlers at health centres and to health workers involved in the immunization programme. These health workers feed real-time data which includes information about supply, consumption, expiry dates and quality of vaccines. Temperature is read from temperature loggers installed at ice line refrigerators in which vaccines are stored.
Such information can be viewed at a click of mouse by programmes managers at district, state and national level ie Union Health Ministry and ensure adequate distribution of vaccines. So far, 650 million doses have been tracked. In just six months, stocks replenished was down to two days from earlier 5 days.
In Madhya Pradesh itself, eVIN has seen vaccinations reach up to 75 per cent in its first year since its launch in 2016, said the state Health Commissioner Dr Pallavi Jain Govil while Dr Santosh Shukla, Deputy Director, MP immunization officer echoed financial benefits of the eVIN. “Since we get the real time data of storage temperature of vaccines, we have noticed about Rs 7.3 crore reductions in vaccine wastage.” Within next two years, entire country will be under the eVIN umbrella, said Pradip Haldar deputy commissioner at the Health Ministry while the Health Secretary CK Mishra termed it (eVIN) a big boost for the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives of the Government. He said it sets a benchmark in the field of immunization.