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.

  • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 months ago

    I guess the fear of needles is a constant problem when children are vaccinated. Having an alternative method ready could make it easier for children, parents and doctors.

    • weker01@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      Not only children. I know a guy that passes out (or almost does) when they try to inject him with needles.

      • Octavio@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I know a guy like that too. Okay, it’s me. I have to ask the doctor to let me be lying down when I get a shot. But at least it’s not as embarrassing as passing out in the little chair and have a 115 lb. nurse trying to hold me up before I hit the floor. That has happened more than once.