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.
Microneedles?
That's right, tiny little needles so small you don't even feel them. Attached to a patch like a Band-Aid, the little needles barely penetrate the skin before they dissolve and release their vaccine. Researchers led by Mark Prausnitz of Georgia Institute of Technology reported their research on microneedles in Sunday's edition of Nature Medicine.
The business side of the patch feels like fine sandpaper, he said. In tests of microneedles without vaccine, people rated the discomfort at one-tenth to one-twentieth that of getting a standard injection, he said. Nearly everyone said it was painless.
You know, I'd use it. Just send me the vaccines I need in the mail and I'll slap a patch on and be done with it. I think a lot more people would vaccinate if it were that easy. I need to do the vaccination thing because of working with the kids at school. They highly encourage it. But the time involved in getting the damn things is a pain. I can get them free if I'm willing to give up an entire afternoon of waiting. Otherwise I have to pay and find somewhere to get it done in the community. Either way, a good amount of time is involved. Pain in the butt.
