UMERKOTE: In a first in the State, a Walk-in Chamber (WIC), a cold storage unit for preserving life saving medicines was inaugurated in Nabarangpur on Wednesday.
Keeping in view the storage issues, Odisha State Aids Control Society (OSACS) had planned to set up dedicated cold rooms for storing the HIV/Syphillis kits (except vaccines) along with other life-saving drugs in different districts.
The sites were identified based on vulnerable total population affected by HIV/Syphillis and ease of access to nearby districts.
Nabarangpur being one among the seven identified districts for installation of a WIC, the unit was established with global funding and National Aids Control Organization (NACO) support.
The other districts where the WIC would be set up include Ganjam, Khurda, Bolangir, Sundergarh, Keonjhar and Balasore.
The WIC has a 24-hour generator back up and will take care of preserving medicines that faced stocking issues. Each regional store will be tagged with at least four to five districts.
This facility comes as a relief to districts which have cold rooms but are barred from using it for storage of drugs other than those mentioned under the immunisation programmes like anti-venom, rabies, ImoVax and HIV/Syphillis kits.
The WIC was inaugurated by district Collector Ajit Kumar Mishra in the presence of other concerned officials.