Vaccines can be delivered through the skin using ultrasound. This method doesn’t damage the skin and eliminates the need for painful needles. To create a needle-free vaccine, Darcy Dunn-Lawless at the University of Oxford and his colleagues mixed vaccine molecules with tiny, cup-shaped proteins. They then applied liquid mixture to the skin of mice and exposed it to ultrasound – like that used for sonograms – for about a minute and a half.
71·1 year ago- 1.5min really isn’t that long compared to the procedures just to process insurance, identity, etc. Retrieving needles, etc. This only needs the topical vaccine, an ultrasound machine, and a wipe for the machine.
- When this goes mainstream it’ll be a little device with cutout so you can apply it flawlessly to the upper arm. Ultrasounds need training to get readable data, but probably a LOT less just to apply ultrasound to an area.
- Needles will still be king anywhere in the developing world. It’ll be more expensive initially, but with the mass production the price will go down. And there will be small cost savings to not having to deal with sharps and biohazards as often.