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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke

In Bulawayo

Zimbabwe’s Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) has received a major boost from the installation of solar systems in health centres across the country. 

The immunisation programme has been an integral part of the country’s Primary Health Care Programme for decades, with the aim to reduce morbidity and mortality among vulnerable populations among them children and pregnant women. 

However, due to the continuous power shortages being experienced in the country, the supply and storage of these vaccines had become difficult for health centres which were failing to maintain the required cold chain capacity. Last week, the Ministry of Health and Child Care conducted a field visit to Masvingo, Matabeleland South and Bulawayo provinces to familiarise local media with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-Global Fund Solar for Health project (S4H), which has been instrumental in ensuring health facilities have the necessary cold chain capacity to run the immunisation programme. 

According to Matabeleland South provincial medical director Dr Andrew Muza, at least 107 out of the 145 health facilities in the province now had solar power. 

“We have vaccines that we give to our children but these need to be maintained at a certain temperature range. With the availability of backup solar power, we are now able to maintain our vaccines in the recommended temperature range even at the lowest level in our clinics, which may be far from the district hubs. 

This means our patients are able to access potent vaccines in the communities,” he said. 

The EPI is one of the key interventions aiming at reducing vaccine preventable diseases such as measles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, tuberculosis and diphteria among others, which are among the leading causes of mortality in children under five years of age. Pregnant women are immunised against tetanus in order to prevent children against neonatal tetanus. 

The Ministry of Health is currently rolling out supplementary immunisation alongside the Covid vaccination and is also expected to start rolling out the cholera vaccine soon. Dr Muza said these vaccines needed to be stored at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius for them to retain their potency. 

“Once you are able to keep vaccines at the recommended temperatures closer to the people, it means that you will not have service delivery gaps. 

The solar project has helped us to be able to keep the vaccines closer to the primary care facilities so that when we now go to do our door to door vaccinations, it is easier for healthcare workers to collect vaccines and go into the communities instead of travelling long distances to a district hub for the vaccines. So in terms of coverage of our EPI programme, we then anticipate that there will be an improvement,” he said. 

In Bulawayo, at least 25 solar systems ranging from 7 kilowatt and 40KW have been installed. Bulawayo City health services director Dr Edwin Sibanda-Mzingwane said the solar power had been instrumental in ensuring health centres always had vaccines for the people when they were needed. 

“All of our facilities have been installed with solar systems as back up and it covers lighting, refrigeration and the cold chain for the vaccines which now have been extended for Covid-19 and other outbreaks that can be prevented through vaccines,” he said. 

In Masvingo, sister in charge Family and Child Health at Chivi district hospital sister Tendero Mufudza said the EPI refrigerators were always on owing to the solar power.

“One of the key result areas for the FCH department is immunisation so we need our vaccines to be kept at the required temperatures. Before solar, our fridges would maintain cold chain temperatures for at least six hours if there was no electricity but then we had power cuts that lasted more than six hours. This was a major challenge because we know that if a child gets a vaccine that has been exposed to higher temperatures, the medicine will not work. Now we know the solar will kick in and those medicines will be well kept,” she said. 

Mothers whose children were due to be immunised said the solar project was a benefit for them as they could get the vaccines whenever they needed them. 

Ms Zinzile Dube said: “I stay in Eskhoveni, which is a long distance from the hospital so I have to pay US$4 for transport to and from the hospital. We are grateful for this project because now when we come for immunisation we are assured of getting assistance. The fridges are always on so we will not be told to come back on another day to get the vaccines.” 

Another mother, Ms Lubelihle Khanye from Habane also expressed her gratitude for the solar project. 

“This is my first child and I have come to get my baby immunised. I have heard that vaccines might go bad if they are not stored at the right temperatures so we are happy that there is solar now and this means that the vaccines will continue to be effective and safe for our children,” she said. 

According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 2014), one out of every eleven Zimbabwean children dies each year before their fifth birthday (approximately 35 500 children per year). 

The country’s under-5 mortality rate has been reduced from 84 per 1,000 live births to 75 per 1000 live births and infant mortality reduced from 58 to 55 per 1000 live births.

Immunisation therefore remains the best way to continue reducing the childhood mortality trends in the country.