How to temperature map cold chain equipment and storage areas - ISS-G20 Laboratorium Repository

The central-level cold room of any country may hold millions of dollars’ worth of vaccines.

In highly populated countries this may also be the case for provincial- and even district-level cold rooms. The WHO effective vaccine management (EVM) initiative sets standards for safe vaccine handling and storage to ensure that heat and freezing temperatures do not damage vaccines. The standards require all vaccine cold and freezer rooms to be temperature mapped routinely every 2 years. This document provides guidance for undertaking the process. The first temperature mapping should take place at the time of the storage unit’s commissioning, and then should be performed when the cold and freezer rooms, as well as associated storage units (refrigerators and freezers), undergo any modifications or major repairs.

Annex 1 provides further information on conducting temperature mapping after modifications or major repairs. Temperature mapping is not limited to vaccine cold and freezer rooms. Temperatures in refrigerators, freezers and dry stores – where diluents, injection equipment and other pharmaceuticals are kept – should also be temperature mapped.

Entire content available on: https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/9789240042773