Can you see my point?
Posted on 23. Jul, 2010 by Alchemist in Health, News, People
Ten percent of the UK suffers from trypanophobia, or to you and me, needle phobia – defined as the irrational fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles.
This condition may seem fairly harmless to the 90 percent of us that aren’t affected, but for over six million people, needle phobia can pose a real problem. This week has seen reports on an American study published in this month’s online edition of Nature Medicine about a new painless way of delivering vaccines: via a dissolving microneedle patch.
The question is whether innovative administration technologies such as these will be paid for by healthcare systems facing ever-increasing financial pressures?
Modern medicine increasingly relies on needles – just think of their requirement in the most ordinary of circumstances like having a blood sample taken or getting your holiday jabs. Not to mention the endless array of vaccinations given to the least willing participants of the lot – kids. I have it on good authority from our very own PR Mum that if a child even senses they’re about to get a jab they try to run a mile.
Another area of medicine that relies heavily on injections is influenza vaccination. About 13 million seasonal flu shots are given in the UK each year, in order to avoid the disease’s commonly associated symptoms of headache, fever, cough, sore throat, and aching muscles and joints. For a proportion of the population however, the threat of flu is far more serious. These people (including those aged over 65 and those who suffer from chronic conditions such as asthma, heart disease, neurological disorders or diabetes) are at a far greater risk of suffering serious complications if they come into contact with the influenza virus. So it would seem that being in the influenza ‘at risk’ category, and also suffering needle phobia could potentially land one in a bit of trouble.
American scientists have reported in the July 18 online edition of Nature Medicine that they have successfully developed a new painless way of delivering vaccines via a dissolving microneedle patch. The patch is one-quarter the size of a US penny, with around 100 dissolving “micron-scale needles carrying a vaccine” that can easily be self-administered, and is reported to work “at least as well, and probably better, than a traditional hypodermic needle.” The study’s authors hope that the new patch can be utilised in pharmacy and mail-order vaccination programmes, as the microneedles on the patch dissolve away into the skin, leaving no dangerous sharp needles behind.
Could this be the future for the administration of vaccines across the world? I’m sure there are plenty of people suffering from needle phobia that hope so. If you are needle phobic would you pay a premium for this method of administration, or do you feel that it is an unnecessary luxury?
Ross
28. Jul, 2010
Just as I think I wouldn’t be suprised by the next big thing that I read about on the Internet, this comes along.
Great stuff, not something that you’d think would be as effective as a regular needle, or have as long lasting protection but it does?
Alchemist
28. Jul, 2010
Hi Ross, good to hear from you. It’s an interesting development isn’t it? According to the studies the new patch is just as effective (if not more so) than the traditional hypodermic. I wonder what they’ll come up with next?!