A damaged cooling line at a Longyearbyen medical depot has spoiled 18,400 doses of seasonal flu vaccine, the Polar Health Accord announced on 3 October. The recall includes 4,260 doses already sent to 11 clinics in Svalbard, northern Greenland, Nunavut and Finland; 1,380 people have received them and are being told to return for replacement shots.
The accident happened on 30 September when an electric pallet tug struck equipment outside the North Vault depot during unloading. The temperature in one storage room climbed from -2°C (28°F) to 11°C (52°F) over nine hours. No one was injured, but a damaged sensor circuit kept the warning panel showing that the stock remained within its safe range.
Clinics begin urgent recalls
The Accord said the affected doses came from a pooled reserve used by 19 clinics serving remote Arctic settlements. Those clinics have stopped administering the batch and are checking their freezers against shipment codes. Officials say there is no evidence the doses caused illness; the concern is that heat may have weakened their protection, leaving recipients insufficiently protected against seasonal flu.
At a clinic in Longyearbyen, nurse coordinator Tiana Korošec said staff had begun calling patients and arranging replacement appointments. “People did what we asked and came in for protection. Now we have to explain that the dose may not have worked, and we should not have to guess which shipment was safe,” she said. The clinic expects to complete its calls by Sunday evening.
Alarm failure draws anger
Rūtenė Norvyda, the Accord’s public-health secretary, said the temperature logs and a technician’s inspection confirmed that the warning system had failed during the accident. “The alarm said safe while the stock was warming. That is not a small clerical error; it is a failure we have to answer for,” she said. The Accord has suspended deliveries from the depot until a second monitoring system is installed and tested.
The six-member Accord also urged governments not to impose unilateral checks or suspend cross-border medical cargo. Its Saturday appeal said that restrictions could delay replacement vaccines, insulin and emergency medicines at clinics with no road access. Several of the affected settlements rely on scheduled aircraft and coastal vessels, and winter weather can quickly disrupt both.
Norvyda said the first replacement shipment would leave Tromsø on Sunday, with clinics prioritised by the size of their depleted stocks. The Accord has not yet estimated the cost of the lost doses or repairs. It has ordered a technical review of the depot’s unloading procedures and alarm equipment, with initial findings due within 10 days.
Muhammad K. Langeland, a doctor advising the Accord, said clinics would offer repeat vaccination to everyone who received a dose from the affected batch, without charge. He said officials had found no further compromised stock so far, but would publish daily updates until all 11 clinics had checked their supplies. “We need the same answer in every settlement, not a different rumour on every flight,” he said.
