Innovation… Tech that could replace injection needles

Scientists have made a dissolvable patch that can deliver vaccines — potentially eliminating the need for needles entirely.

The new vaccines are delivered simply by laying a tiny patch onto a person’s finger, before it dissolves into their skin. As such, it could vastly reduce the spread of diseases, by making the delivery of vaccines much more effective and cheap.

The new technology is made of a dissolvable material, meaning that when it is placed onto the skin it will dissolve straight away.

At the moment, most vaccines are injected into the skin or into muscles. But that requires specialist staff, is expensive, can easily go wrong and many people are afraid of or dislike needles.

Read also: Innovation…The concrete that fixes its own cracks

What’s more, scientists say in testing the vaccines are just as effective as those delivered by needles — and sometimes more. In the tests, which used three different strains of flu, none of the subjects had bad reactions.

“We were excited to see that our new microneedle patch is just as effective as the needle-delivered flu vaccines, and in some cases even more effective,” said Professor Nakagawa, one of the authors of the Osaka University study.

Previous attempts to develop microneedles have relied on silicon or metal. But they weren’t safe, since they would sometimes break off in the skin and leave fragments behind — since the newly-developed ones are dissolvable, they are designed to safely break up in the skin and leave nothing behind.

– Independent UK

Ripples… without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now