Do you avoid getting shots in the arm because you’re afraid of needles? You may soon be able to get a vaccination as easily as slapping on a Band-Aid.
The microneedle patch is an adhesive bandage with up to 100 needles so small you can’t even feel them. Soaked in a mix of vaccine and sugar, you put it on and wear it for 15 to 20 minutes. When you take it off, you’re vaccinated against the flu, measles or rubella.
Its most compelling advantages would be for people in the developing world.
There’s no need for refrigeration to preserve the vaccine and no need to train someone how to use and properly dispose of needles. And people no longer have to travel miles to vaccination centers — health workers can easily go door-to-door to do their job.
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Georgia Tech University’s Mark Prausnitz came up with the idea and has been testing it in the lab. The Centers for Disease Control wants to start human trials in 2017 — and possibly use it to reaching its goal of eradicating measles and rubella by 2020.
(WATCH the video below) – Photos: Georgia Tech University video