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Ultrasound can push vaccines into the body without needles (www.newscientist.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] 19 points 2 years ago* (6 children)

I guess it's interesting but this seems to have minimal use case. For those with reactions to injections and such it's useful, but it seems much easier to use a needle in most cases. Also that article claims that it "doesn't damage the skin", but I don't see why a vaccine would cause any meaningful damage to the skin in the first place.

Edit: Okay I'm seeing now how this would be useful for more frequent injections like insulin and such if it can be used like that.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    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.

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