Assessment of Medicines Cold Chain Storage Conformity with the World Health Organization Requirements in Health Facilities in Tanzania

A descriptive study on assessment of medicines cold chain storage conformitywith World Health Organization (WHO) requirements in public health facilitieswas carried out in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma regions. Storage conformityin selected health facilities was assessed by monitoring temperature usingtemperature data loggers mounted in the refrigerators for a period of 30 days.Results indicated almost half of the health facilities 48.5% visited, did not significantly(P = 0.031) comply with storage temperature (+2°C to +8°C) as perWHO requirement because all recorded Mean Kinetic temperature (MKT) u003e8°C. In rural areas, 59.2% of visited health facilities adhered to the WHOrecommended storage temperature while in urban areas only 31.6% complied.The study has established electricity failure in urban and lack of gas in ruralareas coupled with absence of contingency plan as major challenges to WHOtemperature conformity in storage of cold chain medicines in health facilitiesin Tanzania.