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    Beyond The Nasty Needle: Trying To Make Vaccines More Comfy And Convenient

    From tiny, dissolving needles to high-powered liquid streams and nasal sprays, scientists are developing alternatives to typical vaccinations.
    by Courtney Columbus Jul 23, 2017 4 minutes
    The microneedle patches developed at Georgia Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Drug Delivery each contain an array of needles less than a millimeter long.

    News this summer of a flu vaccine patch sparked a lot of chatter. Could getting vaccinated be as easy as putting on a bandage? Could there be fewer, or at least smaller, needles in our future?

    Some companies and academic labs are working to make those things happen.

    They're refining technologies that involve tiny needles, less than a millimeter long, and needle-free injectors that can send a dose of vaccine through your skin in a fraction of a second.

    Some of these technologies are already available on the market, while others are still being tested.

    One hundred very tiny needles

    A flu vaccine patch is not yet available to the public. But one version developed by Georgia Tech's showed promising results in its first human clinical trial, according to a study in in June.

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