The timely development of Covid-19 vaccines brought hope to the fight against the global pandemic. But getting a vaccine requires a visit to a clinic or hospital. The vaccine needs cold storage and a health care provider to inject it into the arm. This is slowing down the mass vaccination rate.
Scientists from Stanford University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill have developed a new way to deliver vaccines quickly and painlessly.
Greater protection than a traditional immunization shot
The 3D printed vaccine patch is more effective than a traditional immunization shot. The vaccine patch has been tested on the animal skin. The resulting immune response was found to be 10 times greater than a needle jab delivered into an arm muscle.
The patch can be self-administered easily
This patch has 3D-printed microneedles lined up on a polymer strip, these needles are just long enough to reach the skin to deliver the vaccine. The idea is to apply the vaccine patch directly to the skin which is full of immune cells.
Apart from COVID-19 vaccines, these microneedles can be easily customized to develop vaccine patches for other diseases like flu, measles, or hepatitis.
