Self-administrated flu vaccine in patch form may be around the corner

A self-administered flu vaccine available in the form of a patch may one day be possible, according to a new study.

The study of 100 people found that participants could successfully apply a prototype vaccine patch to themselves, suggesting the burden of vaccination will one day not rely solely on health care professionals - and that more people may opt for the procedure.

"Our dream is that each year there would be flu vaccine patches available in stores or sent by mail for people to self-administer," Mark Prausnitz, a Regent's professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said in a statement.

"People could take them home and apply them to the whole family. We want to get more people vaccinated, and we want to relieve health care professionals from the burden of giving these millions of vaccinations," he added.

The study, published in the journal Vaccine, is the first to compare vaccines with microneedle patches with typical intramuscular injections. The patch, with 50 microscopic needles as tall as the thickness of a few hairs, is pressed painlessly against a person's skin to inject the vaccine into the outer layers of the skin, triggering an immune reaction in the recipient.

The researchers did not administer a vaccine into the participants, only a saline solution, to determine the effectiveness of the microneedle patch. A dye was applied to the needles to observe the injection sites and determine its accuracy. After brief instructions, the participants applied three patches themselves.

"We found that everyone was capable of administering a microneedle patch appropriately, though not everyone did on the first try," Prausnitz said.

Less than half of the U.S. population gets the influenza vaccine each year, even though several thousand die yearly from flu-related complications. But with the patch option, the number of people who would get vaccinated could jump from 46 to 65 percent, according to participants.

"If this holds for the population as a whole, that would have a tremendous impact on preventing disease and the cost associated with both influenza and the vaccination process," said Paula Frew, co-author of the study and an assistant professor in the Emory University School of Medicine.