A new 3D vaccine patch is now being worked on by medical researchers so that patients would have a faster and more comfortable COVID-19 immunization experience.
Health workers dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) handle a coronavirus test at a drive-thru testing station at Cummings Park on March 23, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Availability of protective clothing for medical workers has become a major issue as COVID-19 cases surge throughout the United States. The Stamford site is run by Murphy Medical Associates.
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As of the moment, all vaccines are administered using needles. Because of this, some individuals are hesitant to get their vaccine jabs because they are afraid of needles.
Severe cases involve an actual phobia of needles called trypanophobia. This condition makes a person have irrational, extreme fear or aversion to needles and blood.
To encourage more people to have COVID-19 vaccines, the University of North Carolina's medical experts decided to work on 3D-printed vaccine patches to remove the use of needles and provide a painless vaccination experience.
3D Vaccine Patches To Arrive
The new study titled "Transdermal vaccination via 3D-printed microneedles induces potent humoral and cellular immunity" was published in the PNAS journal.
Bruno Cassaro de Andrade, a chemical engineering student, works with a test during the method of separating specific proteins to be applied in the production of vaccines on March 24, 2020 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The Ministry of Health convened The Technological Vaccine Center of the Federal University of Minas Gerais laboratory to conduct research on the coronavirus (COVID-19) in order to diagnose.
"In this work, faceted microneedle arrays were designed and fabricated utilizing a three-dimensional (3D)-printing technique called continuous liquid interface production (CLIP)," said involved medical experts.
They also claimed that their innovation leads to the increased surface area, providing better vaccine component coating than the square pyramidal design (needles).
Aside from the new 3D COVID-19 vaccine patches, other medical innovations are currently being worked on. These include the new Breast Cancer Imaging AI and the new AI software that detects prostate cancer.
How Efficient are the New 3D Vaccine Patches?
According to CTV News' latest report, the new 3D-printed vaccine patches could solve a lot of issues posed by the traditional immunization process.
Researchers explained that vaccine hesitancy could be reduced if these patches were approved for human usage. On the other hand, this technology also stores the COVID-19 vaccine fluids, allowing patients to take them home and conduct self immunization.
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Written by: Griffin Davis
