The stability of bacterial vaccines at elevated temperatures.

The requirements for vaccines demand that they be safe and efficacious. The recommended storage temperature for vaccines is 2-8 degrees C, but their conditions of storage and transportation in the developing countries may frequently be far from ideal. This had led to the present study in which several vaccines have been stored at ambient temperature (+24 degrees C) and at +37 degrees C and their antigenic stabilities examined. Under these adverse conditions, typhoid, cholera and the components of DPT vaccines either in final containers or in bulk form have been shown to be stable for extended periods of time.