Our biggest logistical challenge in Nigeria was when 800,000 vaccines arrived in ten dose vials rather than 50 dose vials. This meant that the storage space we had calculated for was not big enough—we needed 30% more capacity than we had originally estimated.
So a team of four people had to take out every single vial and repack it without its original packaging, being sure that it did not spend much time out of refrigeration, and that it was kept with the batch it came with so we could track it properly.
Basically we repacked 800,000 vials—vial per vial—in just a few hours. We had to work fast.
I say “we….”
I was not in the cold chain the day the supplies arrived, and I felt pretty sorry for my colleagues.
And it was me who made the mistake in calculation. I should have known because the packaging was different, coming from a different producer, and I know that different producers manufacture vials in different doses. We were moving so fast, I just didn’t think. But we managed because you always plan for a 10-20% margin at each step to allow for things like this.