The faulty storage of polio vaccines may have been responsible for the resurgence of polio in parts of India. However this situation will soon be resolved because of the invention of an Indian scientist.
SolarChill, a vaccine cooler has been developed by Rajendra Shende under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This solar vaccine cooler is expected to be of much use especially in rural parts where electricity is in short supply.The vaccine cooler promises to be a viable eco-friendly solution that will replaces the lead batteries and chlorofluorocarbons responsible for ozone depletion and used in conventional refrigerators.
Shende based in Paris is the head of UNEP's Ozone Action Branch and has come to Delhi to deliver two units of SolarChill to its first Indian customer -- President A P J Abdul Kalam, who has proposed to install them in the clinic at Rashtrapati Bhavan complex.
Shende said, 'SolarChill does not use lead batteries or kerosene used in conventional solar chillers. Instead, we use the sun's energy to create a thick layer of ice which helps in maintaining temperature in the cooler between minus two degrees and eight degrees Celsius.'
Shende was struck with this idea during his travels in Burkina Faso in 2000. He said, 'I thought that if we could develop a vaccine cooler that uses the solar energy so abundant in Burkina Faso and other developing countries, it would be a boon for vaccination programmes implemented there.'
Source-Medindia
SRM
