Wearable Tech and the Internet of Things (Iot)

A study into flu treatment suggests we could do away with needles, using a dissolvable patch to administer vaccines instead.  There are plenty of people out there with a fear of needles, reportedly one in five people suffer from what’s called trypanophobia.  To be honest, even the rest of us who aren’t afraid of them would still rather a situation that didn’t involve a needle being shoved into our arms.  Research by Osaka University academics in Japan that points to a future of no needles, for some cases, should be welcomed by many.

But Nakagawa used water to make the patch, and hyaluronic acid to create the needles – hyaluronic acid is something that humans naturally produce to cushion their joints.

When the patch is applied like a plaster, the needles pierce the top layer of skin without causing pain and dissolve into the body, taking the vaccine with them.   “Because the new patch is so easy to use, we believe it will be particularly effective in supporting vaccination in developing countries,” said Professor Nakagawa, professor of biotechnology and therapeutics at Osaka University. By testing the patches with flu vaccines, the results seemed positive, with results showing that patients had at least as much a reaction as those treated traditionally — the paper doesn’t detail who, of those treated, subsequently got the flu.