Cooling for health services

This report examines the critical role of sustainable cooling and electricity in health services, focusing on vaccine cold chains, the management of temperature-sensitive medical products, and the need for temperature regulation in hospitals and clinics to improve patient care and resilience against heat stress.

• Sustainable cold chains are essential for the delivery of immunization programmes, as vaccines are highly temperature sensitive; exposure above 8°C for prolonged periods, any exposure above 20°C, or accidental freezing can destroy them. It is estimated that 1.5 million deaths could be avoided annually through improved vaccine coverage.
• There are significant gaps in cold chain infrastructure in low-income regions. A 2014 survey of 57 Gavi-eligible countries found that up to 90 percent of health facilities lacked reliable cold chain equipment, and 20 percent had no cold chain equipment at all.
• The RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine, which must be stored between 2°C and 8°C, has made cold chains a critical component of malaria response in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 260,000 children die from the disease annually. In pilot countries, the vaccine resulted in a 30 percent reduction in deadly malaria.
• Electricity access is a prerequisite for health facility cooling. In 2018, nearly 59 percent of over 121,000 health care facilities analyzed across 46 low- and middle-income countries lacked reliable electricity. Solar PV and battery storage are identified as cost-effective solutions for 50,000 off-grid facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa, potentially reducing patient travel time by an average of 50 minutes.
• Energy-efficient cooling technology can significantly reduce power requirements. Super-efficient refrigerators require only 10 percent of the power capacity needed by conventional vaccine refrigerators, allowing health centres to support more medical devices with the same energy system.
• Passive and nature-based cooling solutions can reduce the need for energy-intensive air conditioning. Examples include the Friendship Hospital Shyamnagar in Bangladesh, which uses cross-ventilation and shading to limit air-conditioning to operating and delivery rooms, and Changi General Hospital in Singapore, which used a roof garden and water features to save USD 800,000 in annual energy and water costs.
• The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for ultra-cold chain (UCC) capacity for vaccines like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which initially required storage between -20°C and -70°C. In Bangladesh, UNICEF delivered 26 large freezers through COVAX, increasing UCC capacity by the equivalent of nearly 9 million vaccines.

APA

Sustainable Energy for All (2022). Cooling for health services. https://www.seforall.org/chilling-prospects-2022/health-services

Chicago

Sustainable Energy for All. Cooling for health services. 2022. https://www.seforall.org/chilling-prospects-2022/health-services.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Sustainable Energy for All |title=Cooling for health services |date=2022 |url=https://www.seforall.org/chilling-prospects-2022/health-services |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sustainableenergyforall2022cooling, author = {{Sustainable Energy for All}}, title = {{Cooling for health services}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, year = {2022}, url = {https://www.seforall.org/chilling-prospects-2022/health-services}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }