Many medical advances within the past 400 years have greatly transformed medicine for the better, such as the discovery of cells and Germ Theory, which in turn led to the practice of sterilization. Vaccines, meanwhile, are another major aspect of modern medicine, and vaccines of all types help protect many lives around the world from deadly diseases every year. Naturally, many formal organizations are studying worldwide health trends and logging many statistics, and the numbers easily show that vaccines are saving many lives in recent years. For example, the WHO and the Measles and Rubella Initiative have estimated that nearly 17 million lives have been saved due to the measles vaccine since the year 2000. Similarly, the total of measles-related deaths has dropped 79% from 546,800 in the year 2000 down to around 114,900 by 2014.
Of course, while these vaccines are extremely effective at preventing disease, they should also be stored properly. Vaccines are sensitive to heat, and thus they should be stored in proper cooler units, such as dedicated vaccine refrigerator freezers. These vaccine refrigerator freezer and medical grade freezers are important for a lab or hospital to buy and use, since commercial freezers and fridges are not designed for this precise work. Vaccine freezers may be found in hospitals, for example, and vaccine refrigerator freezers can be found at research labs, too.
Vaccines Then and Now
The concept of vaccines is even older than some people may realize. They are quite varied and powerful now, but vaccines had their start as far back as 1796. In that year, a Mr. Edward Jenner developed what he called the “arm to arm” inoculation method against smallpox, and he did this by first obtaining a tissue sample from a cowpox victim’s skin blisters. Then, Mr. Jenner transferred this material to the arm of a second patient, and this controlled virus sample could help train the patient’s immune system to recognize smallpox more effectively.
History has shown that this idea proved successful, and vaccines have been used and developed ever since then. By the 1940s, vaccines were being mass produced for the first time, and this may have been due to American military personnel being sent to other parts of the globe for World War II. In any case, vaccines in that time protected patients from Diphtheria, tetanus, smallpox, and whooping cough, typical diseases of the day. By the 2010s, vaccines had long since expanded to protect patients from other diseases as well, such as Polio and measles, too. Vaccines and routine shots are given to babies and toddlers to help bolster and kick-start their developing immune systems, protecting them from diseases that often claimed young lives in times past. Adults may get shots later in life to keep their immune systems current, and the same is true of the elderly, who often have age-worn immune systems. But while these vaccines are standard practice and quite effective, they also need proper storage solutions. Wholesale vaccine refrigerator freezers and lab refrigerators are ideal for this role.
Storing Those Vaccines
Hospitals and research labs work with vaccines and tissue samples, and those items are delicate and need to be stored in vaccine refrigerator freezers that carefully control the temperature inside. Ordinary, commercial freezers and fridges are only designed to contain food and drinks, and they have a too-wide variance in temperature when their doors are opened. Thus, specialized vaccine refrigerator freezers can be bought, and the staff of a hospital or research lab may look online to browse the catalogs that local medical suppliers have to offer. The team may also buy from the secondary market and find gently used vaccine refrigerator freezers if they need to.
These storage units are all effective at storing delicate medical items, but they vary in size and storage space. A larger hospital may invest in massive fridges or freezers to contain many vaccines for influenza season, but those units are too big for a smaller research lab. Instead, a more space-conscious lab may look for petite freezers and fridges, some of which can be placed right onto a countertop to save floor space. Some such units can be fitted under the counter to save even more room in small labs.