Hi-tech patches may herald the end of flu jabs

TRADITIONAL flu jabs could be rendered obsolete by a hi-tech skin patch which delivers vaccine painlessly through scores of tiny needles.

Scientists believe the patch, successfully tested on mice, could revolutionise pandemic control by allowing vaccines to be self-administered.

The patch can easily be used by someone with no medical training.

After it is applied to the skin, the “microneedles” — each measuring just over half a millimetre — deliver the vaccine and simply dissolve away. All that remains is a water-soluble backing that can safely be discarded,

Scientists in the US designed a 100-needle patch that was first tested for its ability to penetrate pig skin, which is about the same thickness as its human counterpart.

They then carried out experiments to see how effectively the patch could deliver flu vaccine in mice.

One group of rodents received hypodermic needle flu jabs, while others were treated with patches that were either loaded with the vaccine or empty.

Three months later mice vaccinated with the microneedles were found to be mounting a stronger immune response than those injected by syringe.

They were better able to clear the flu virus from their lungs than animals given the traditional flu jab.

Professor Mark Prausnitz, from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who led the study reported today in the journal Nature Medicine, said: “We have shown that a dissolving microneedle patch can vaccinate against influenza at least as well, and probably better than, a traditional hypodermic needle.”

The needle arrays are made from a plastic-like polymer that is known to be safe for use in the body. Freeze-dried vaccine was mixed into the material in tiny moulds.

Before being made generally available, the patch will have to undergo patient trials to assure its safety and effectiveness.