Vaccibox
MLC Voyager | Drop Access
Vaccibox is a solar-powered, portable and smart medical-grade refrigerator designed to help remote health facilities maintain cold chain integrity, improving access to immunization and healthcare services in hard-to-reach areas. It has supported storage and transportation of over one million human and animal vaccines as well as other medical products such as oxytocin, blood for transfusion, anti-venom, insulin and antibiotics. This has directly impacted over 300,000 households in Kenya's Kajiado, Homabay, Bungoma, Turkana, and Makueni Counties, saving lives, protecting people and improving rural livelihoods.
324,289 Lives Impacted
Vaccibox plays a significant role in transforming access to reliable cold chain storage in underserved communities by ensuring that vaccines and essential medicines remain potent, even in areas without stable electricity. It directly strengthens immunization programs by reducing vaccine wastage therefore contributing to improved child and maternal health outcomes. Health care service providers in remote facilities are now able to confidently plan outreach activities, store critical medical products, and serve more people in need.
The innovation reduces the economic burden for both health workers and patients who had to travel long distances for vaccination and treatment. Vaccibox also contributes to climate resilience by harnessing solar energy, reducing reliance on diesel-powered refrigeration and grid power, therefore lowering carbon emissions.
More than 324,000 lives have been positively impacted across Kenya to date. Key milestones include successful pilot deployments in rural health centers, partnerships with ministries of health, and recognition by global organizations advocating for healthcare equity. Vaccibox is not only improving healthcare delivery but also creating a pathway for long-term systemic change in primary healthcare access.
The Innovation
Vaccibox is a portable solar powered fridge that can easily be mounted on a motorbike, bicycle or boat, to store and transport vaccines, blood for transfusion, drugs such as insulin and other medical items to any rural, off-grid and hard to reach communities. It has a 50 liters internal capacity hence can carry up to 3000 vaccine doses. Other than operating on solar energy, it comes complete with a 24-hour battery power backup to ensure that it is still in operation at night and periods of low solar resource. Its operating temperature is +2 to +8 degrees Celsius to permit storage of a wide range of vaccines and medical products. What makes Vaccibox unique is its integration with Internet of Things (IoT) technology, enabling real-time monitoring of temperature, location, stock levels, and overall performance from anywhere in the world. This feature is enabled with a PCB circuit board that supports functions such as recording temperature, recording battery voltage, charge level and isolating the fridge compressor from the battery if the charge is too low, maximizing battery life and optimized charging even in periods of little sun.
The circuit also sounds a buzzer if the fridge door is open for too long, if the temperatures are not within the acceptable range of +2 to +8 degrees Celsius. The data collected is received in our backend platform where it can be synthesized into graphs and other trends. This feature also enables us as developers to monitor the fridge running at all times, to remotely troubleshoot and avoid failures, ensuring reduced downtimes and providing quick and easy technical support using data to make informed decisions. For the user, the healthcare worker, they can access the fridge stock using a mobile application that also alerts them though SMS whenever there is a fault with the fridge.
Looking ahead, the IoT feature will be enhanced for automated stock management and improved vaccine supply logistics.
Implemented in
Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Cote d'Ivoire
Get in touch
James Mulatya, Cheif Technology Officer
About Drop Access
Drop Access is a social enterprise that develops and provides practical and affordable energy solutions for rural, remote, off-grid and low-income communities in Kenya.
Mission: To manufacture and distribute clean energy solutions using flexible payment models.
Vision: To provide sustainable clean energy to underserved communities in Africa.
