Vaccine patch could replace jabs
From NHS Choices News • Monday 19 July 2010
Category: Medication
"The conventional flu jab could be replaced by a skin patch," says The Guardian. The patch, which is coated in microscopic dissolving spikes, is designed to deliver the flu vaccine into the skin without a syringe.
The news is based on important research, and the patch"s animal trial has been covered widely. Some papers have focused on the patch as a means of delivering the flu vaccination, while others have concentrated on the potential for the patch to eliminate all injections.
While the technology worked in mice, the immune response and safety issues need to be tested in human trials before this will become an acceptable alternative to intramuscular injections for vaccinating humans. If testing is successful, the patch will be an attractive option because, as many of the newspapers report, it is easier to administer than a normal injection. It might also reduce some of the difficulties associated with traditional mass vaccination campaigns. This is a technology to watch, and more research will undoubtedly follow.
Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and the Emory University School of Medicine in Georgia, USA. The research was funded in part by the US National Institutes of Health and was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Nature Medicine.
The coverage in the papers is optimistic and all herald this as a discovery that could revolutionise the way that vaccines are delivered, so that they can be given without needles and without the need for medical experts. Testing on humans will undoubtedly follow and is the only way to assess the full potential of this new technology.
What kind of research was this?
This was a laboratory study in mice, that assessed the efficiency of delivering a flu vaccine intradermally (into the skin) using patches coated in dissolvable microneedles. Some studies have shown that intradermal vaccination is better than intramuscular injections, although this finding has not been consistent across research.
