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Karnataka ropes in pharmacists for COVID-19 vaccine surveillance and cold chain supervision
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
December 28 , 2020
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The Karnataka directorate of health and family welfare has roped in pharmacists to take on the COVID-19 vaccine surveillance. This protocol includes cold chain management, monitoring adverse events following immunization (AEFI), vaccine indent and distribution to the field.
To begin with, it has commenced the training in Bengaluru urban district which will be extended to all the 30 districts in the state. The cold chain management of vaccine is a critical component in the COVID-19 vaccination drive along with adverse drug monitoring, Vijayalakshmi M, general secretary, Karnataka State Government Pharmacy Officers Association (KSGPOA), told Pharmabiz.
There are 3,000 state government pharmacists and a rigorous training is on the cards. Pharmacists are the key to chip in their expertise in medication monitoring and have played a crucial role during immunization programmes. For this COVID-19 vaccine programme, which is the largest immunization drive in healthcare not just for the state but the country too, the role of pharmacists cannot be overlooked or undermined, she added.
“We see the inclusion of pharmacists will further strengthen the quality control surveillance of the COVID-19 vaccine. Therefore a reorientation programme of pharmacist across cadres is much desired to ensure smooth vaccination with checks on reactions, added Vijayalakshmi.
Dr K Sudhakar, Karnataka minister for health and family welfare and medical education said that Karnataka may require 1.47 lakh vaccination staffers for the COVID existing 10,008 vaccinators that the state already has.
Officials from the directorate of health and family welfare said that the training is underway for all which includes medical officers, ANMs (auxiliary nurse midwifery), government nurses among others. Pharmacists are key for the COVID-19 vaccination programme. They are adept in the knowhow of adverse drug reactions and to monitor that the quality vaccines stored under the right temperature to be administered.
All the vaccinating stations and cold chain centres will be linked to the eVIN (electronic vaccine network). Here the vaccine stocks can be monitored in real-time and temperature loggers have been installed to make sure that they are preserved in the right environment all the time. Currently, Karnataka has 2,870 cold chain points which according to the state directorate of health and family welfare accounts for 10 per cent of the India cold chain points. There are seven vaccine stores at across Bengaluru, Belagavi, Chitradurga, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi and Bagalkote.
The state has also requested the Union government for additional cold chain equipment. These include deep freezers for transit of vaccines from Bengaluru across all the 30 districts in the state. The state has so far obtained 64 large Ice-Lined Refrigerators (ILRs) and 28 deep freezers to augment the existing cold chain capacity.
The Union government has already commenced dispatching these equipment and the 30 districts are gearing up for its installation in a time bound manner even as the efforts are on to seek the approval of Oxford University-AstraZeneca's Covishield for emergency use following the clinical trials conducted by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.
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