NURSING
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – LITERATURE REVIEW
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Introduction
The advancement in medicine has played a major role in the reduction and prevention of certain diseases. In the modern days people get vaccinated against various types of illnesses that could not be managed in the past (Cdc.gov, 2015). The introduction of vaccines helped in the application of different strategies that manage the distribution of vaccines to a large number of the global population. There are many controversies arising from these strategies.
Literature Review
Vaccine storage is a crucial thing especially for the immunobiology vaccines. As much as the people need to store the vaccines in cool and dry environments, they should not let the temperature exceed the freezing point. Improper vaccine storage has led to the reduction of vaccine potency and efficiency (Immunize.org, 2015).
People should ensure that they do not break or disrupt the cold-chain management in vaccines. Health workers across the world must be trained on better ways of storing various vaccines. They must also be given the necessary equipment required for proper handling and storage of vaccines. The people transporting the vaccines must ensure that they take great care of the vaccines before they reach their destinations (Lam, 2015).
The worldwide vaccine market has increased over the past years. The sale of vaccine has been a profitable business, as the manufacturers introduce new and powerful vaccines. The vaccine manufacturers and the supply chain take advantage of the final consumer by quoting higher prices for the vaccines. This deters the objective of ensuring that the poor people get equally access to the vaccines as their counterparts in the developed countries (Log.logcluster.org, 2015).
The vaccinators and vaccine distributors need to focus their operations in remote areas where the vaccines cold-chain management system is feeble. They should set up plans that can be used to maximize the access of vaccination centers in the rural areas. Most of the health organizations seek to centralize their services to ensure that a large number of children are vaccinated (Mercola.com, 2015). The World Health Organization has coupled up with other private organizations to ensure that most health centers have fully functional refrigerators. This has helped in preserving the vaccines.
Vaccines must get to the market in the exact state they left the manufacturing industries. This means that proper packaging and transportation must be maintained. The various vaccines manufacturing companies have ensured that vaccines are not destroyed during transit by using thermostable technology. The vehicles used to transport the vaccines have refrigerators to keep the vaccines in cool temperature. The vaccines are also put in containers that maintain the required temperature (National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), 2015).
Pharmaceutical organizations play a major role in ensuring that the vaccines reach the target groups. They ensure that the wholesale and retail prices for the vaccines are different depending on the financial status of the people (Offit, 2005). The challenges of acquiring vaccines are created by the middlemen in the chain of vaccine supply. They quote high prices for the customers so that get they their share of profit. Most of the people in developing countries cannot afford to buy the drugs, hence fail to get children vaccinated (Zipursky et al., 2014).
There is a dispute in the pharmaceutical field regarding the nature of sale and distribution of essential vaccines. The people argue if it is fair to sell important vaccines to the people. The pharmaceutical industry is crowded with profit seeking organizations that sell the vaccines at high prices. The developing or poor countries tend to get subsidies on the vaccines allocated to them. This shows how the pharmaceutical industries are inclined towards supporting the developed countries while ignoring the developing countries. A primary contributing factor to this is that this industry is profit oriented. It fails to maintain its moral obligation of ensuring equal access to vaccines for all the people around the world (Vaccination: rattling the supply chain, 2011).
Bibliography
Cdc.gov, (2015). Notice to Readers: Guidelines for Maintaining and Managing the Vaccine Cold Chain. [online] Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5242a6.htm [Accessed 15 Oct. 2015].
Immunize.org, (2015). Vaccine Storage and Handling - Handouts for Healthcare. [online] Available at: http://www.immunize.org/handouts/vaccine-storage-handling.asp [Accessed 15 Oct. 2015].
Lam, B. (2015). Vaccines Are Profitable, So What?. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/vaccines-are-profitable-so-what/385214/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2015].
Log.logcluster.org, (2015). [online] Available at: http://log.logcluster.org/response/cold-chain/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2015].
Mercola.com, (2015). Big Profits Linked to Vaccine Mandates. [online] Available at: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/04/big-profits-linked-to-vaccine-mandates.aspx [Accessed 15 Oct. 2015].
National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), (2015). The Moral Right to Exemptions to Mandatory Vaccination Laws - NVIC. [online] Available at: http://www.nvic.org/informed-consent/The-Moral-Right-to-Conscientious-Personal-Belief-o.aspx [Accessed 15 Oct. 2015].
Offit, P. (2005). Why Are Pharmaceutical Companies Gradually Abandoning Vaccines?. Health Affairs, 24(3), pp.622-630.
Raptor, T. and Raptor, T. (2015). Big Pharma vaccine profits – the real conspiracy. [online] Skeptical Raptor's Blog. Available at: http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/big-pharma-supports-antivaccine-movement-conspirac-vaccines-maybe-not/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2015].
Vaccination: rattling the supply chain. (2011). Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 89(5), pp.324-325.
Zipursky, S., Djingarey, M., Lodjo, J., Olodo, L., Tiendrebeogo, S. and Ronveaux, O. (2014). Benefits of using vaccines out of the cold chain: Delivering Meningitis A vaccine in a controlled temperature chain during the mass immunization campaign in Benin. Vaccine, 32(13), pp.1431-1435.