Washington:
One day your annual flu shot could come in the mail. At least that's the hope of researchers developing a new method of vaccine delivery that people could even use at home: a patch with microneedles.
If needles get you squeamish, fear not. This Band-Aid-like patch could be the future of drug and vaccine delivery.
Attached to the patch are microneedles, just three-hundredths of an inch long.
And they could take the sting out of getting a shot.
The needles are so small that they barely penetrate the skin. They then quickly dissolve and release the vaccine.
In testing, people rated the discomfort at one-tenth to one-twentieth that of getting a standard injection.
Dr. Richard Compans of Emory University says, "The results show that it's essentially completely painless. You feel a little pushing sensation when the patch is applied, but no pain at all."
And that's just one reason why microneedles could be a success.
Dr. Richard Compans further adds, "It potentially can be self-administered so you wouldn't need to go to an immunisation clinic to receive the vaccine. And it can be rapidly distributed to a large population in the outbreak of a new disease."
The research, done by the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, was reported in Sunday's edition of
Nature Medicine.
And if the term "microneedle" still sounds frightening to some folks averse to shots, researchers say marketers will likely come up with a better term before any sales begin.