Band-aid style alternative to flu vaccination

By Brandie Umar - Executive Director of Content | July 19th, 2010

Anyone with a fear of vaccination needles can relax - flu jabs are soon to be replaced with a band-aid style patch. The patch which sticks onto the skin like a band-aid contains 100 mini dissolveable needles. As the patch is stuck onto the skin, microneedles pierce the skin's outerlayer and release the vaccine dosage equivalent to that of a single needle vaccine.

The vaccine patch has yet to be tested on humans but after successful trials on mice, scientists believe it will be approved for human use and widely available within 5 years. Once stuck onto the skin, the patch must be left inplace for 15 minutes and the needles themselves dissolve into the body.

The patch can be self-administered and could pave the way for the same technology to be applied to other forms of vaccination.

Using such easy to administer technology for vaccinations would be indispensible in third-world countries where distibuting aid and vaccines is extermely difficult. Scientists behind the patch believe the alternative vaccination techniue could help prevent pandemics of influenze in such countries and could have wider implications for the future of vaccinations.