The modern medical field is nothing like it was 500 years ago. Many great strides have been made since, such as germ theory, microscopes, sterilization of surgical equipment, and vaccines. Vaccines, in particular, are very important for containing the spread of disease, and a number of viruses have been declared “cured” or extinct thanks to vaccination efforts. Still, for all their power, vaccines are fragile and need to be stored properly before use. A typical research lab and hospital may have a scientific refrigerator, or several scientific refrigerators, on hand to store tissue samples and vaccines correctly. These vaccine refrigerator freezers vary in size and shape, from huge pharmacy freezers to petite benchtop freezers, and everything in between. This is helpful when wholesale buyers are looking for scientific refrigerator units on the market.
An Overview of Vaccines
Vaccines as we know them date back to the year 1796, when the British scientist Edward Jenner developed what he called the “arm to arm” inoculation method against smallpox. He did this by extracting a tissue sample from the skin blister of a cowpox patient and transferring it to a second patient. With this method, the doctor can train the patient’s immune system to recognize and fight off similar diseases, and this method proved a success. Vaccines continued to be developed and used ever since, and by the 1940s, vaccines had entered mass production for the first time. Those vaccines often dealt with common illnesses of the time such as smallpox, diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus. By now, in the 21st century, vaccines also protect patients from measles and Polio, among other contagions.
Vaccines are essential for patients both young and old. A youngster will get many shots and vaccines early in life to bolster their developing immune system, which helps prevent the high child mortality rates of centuries past. Older adults may get shots to protect themselves from influenza, and communities may often hold flu drives to keep everyone safe. Senior citizens have age-worn immune systems and may get ill easily, but vaccines can help prevent spread disease in crowded retirement homes.
Many studies have been conducted to track how many lives are saved due to vaccinations. For example, the annual number of measles-related deaths dropped 79% from 546,800 in the year 2000 to 114,900 in the year 2014. Meanwhile, the World Health Organizations and the Measles and Rubella Initiative say that an estimated 17.1 million lives have been saved due to the measles vaccination since 2000. Still, these powerful vaccines need proper storage solutions so that they can do their work, and that means having scientific refrigerators on hand to contain them until ready for use.
Storage Solutions for Vaccines
As mentioned earlier, vaccines need proper temperatures when being stored at a hospital or a research lab. However, ordinary commercial freezers and fridges won’t be sufficient, since they are designed for ordinary food and have a lot of temperature variance inside when the door is opened. This would compromise vaccines being stored inside. Instead, specialized medical grade freezers and refrigeration units may be used, and they will carefully regulate their own temperatures. They are also typically designed so that they have racks inside for storing vaccines and tissue samples.
The CDC’s guidelines specify that frozen vaccines should be stored at a temperature of -58 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, or -50 50 -15 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, other vaccines can be stored at a somewhat higher temperature, often 40 degrees Fahrenheit (or 5 degrees Celsius).
Some of these scientific refrigerators are larger than others, and the staff at a large hospital may buy a huge unit while buyers from a small research lab will get a petite unit. To save space, they can buy a benchtop freezer unit, or even an under the counter unit (imagine a dishwasher storing vaccines). A large hospital may need to store hundreds of vaccines at once, so the staff can clear up enough floor space for a large unit. Buyers can find these scientific refrigerators from the online catalogs of wholesale medical sellers, rather than visiting ordinary retail outlets. Buyers can even visit the secondary market to find gently used units at a discount price, though they may want to look over those units in person before making a purchase.
