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Don't like needles for vaccinations? Science has you covered!

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TacticalFox88

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An Australian scientist is preparing to begin field trials of an invention expected to provide life-saving vaccines to children around the world immeasurably cheaper and years faster than is now possible.

And it is all without the use of needles.

Mark Kendall is the inventor of the Nanopatch, a strip smaller than a postage stamp with thousands of microscopic points that can inject disease-breaking vaccines into the skin.

Look, no needles: A microscopic view of the Nanopatch. Photo: Supplied
Professor Kendall, of Brisbane, and a team of international researchers have been working for nine years on the ''needle-less'' vaccination in the laboratory.
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In very simple terms, the technology is designed to deliver a vaccine - that now costs $50 for three injections - to children for about 50¢ without a needle in sight.

Professor Kendall, of University of Queensland, will test the fruits of his labour when he begins field trials. ''We will be going into the Papua New Guinea Highlands later this year for a follow-up usability trial,'' he said.

Professor Kendall said the trial would probably happen in October.
The full clinical trials - the step after the field and usability trials - would probably take place in two stages in Brisbane and again in Papua New Guinea within 18 months. The research is being done in two strands - for the developed world and for the developing world - with research in the two areas piggy-backing each other.
The Nanopatch resembles Star Trek technology.

''To the naked eye it looks like a patch,'' Professor Kendall said. ''But if we look under a microscope, we see thousands of projections that we dry-coat vaccine to.

''These are invisible to the naked eye, you really have to look under a microscope to see, and then we apply the patch to the skin.
''Those little projections breach through the tough outer layer of the skin and deliver the vaccines, directly to thousands of immune cells.''

Professor Kendall said the Nanopatch vaccines would be much cheaper than their syringe-delivered counterparts because they did not need to be refrigerated.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/heal...accinations-20130418-2i2z9.html#ixzz2QsYxoBV4
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http://www.smh.com.au/national/heal...-pain-out-of-vaccinations-20130418-2i2z9.html


I can't wait to see where we are at in 20 years.
 
star_trek_bones_injector.jpg


I'm waiting for one of these.
 
Why isn't Mark Kendall in the thread title?

Because inventors don't do anything anymore? It's always SCIENCE that does the hard work. Then you get all the cheerleaders in here going FUCK YEAH SCIENCE, feeling like they are on Team Science while they sit there eating Cheetos, cheering like some crazed Lakers fan.
 
akachan ningen said:
Why isn't Mark Kendall in the thread title?

Because inventors don't do anything anymore? It's always SCIENCE that does the hard work. Then you get all the cheerleaders in here going FUCK YEAH SCIENCE, feeling like they are on Team Science while they sit there eating Cheetos, cheering like some crazed Lakers fan.
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Lmao.
This guy has some serious problems.
 
akachan ningen said:
Why isn't Mark Kendall in the thread title?

Because inventors don't do anything anymore? It's always SCIENCE that does the hard work. Then you get all the cheerleaders in here going FUCK YEAH SCIENCE, feeling like they are on Team Science while they sit there eating Cheetos, cheering like some crazed Lakers fan.
Click to expand...

:/
 
akachan ningen said:
Why isn't Mark Kendall in the thread title?

Because inventors don't do anything anymore? It's always SCIENCE that does the hard work. Then you get all the cheerleaders in here going FUCK YEAH SCIENCE, feeling like they are on Team Science while they sit there eating Cheetos, cheering like some crazed Lakers fan.
Click to expand...

There's a reason those science cheerleaders exist.

b88557037.gif
 
Get over needles you pussies.

BTW, the blood donation place I got to has a nice new lancing thing for the iron blood test that doesn't hurt much at all. That used to be the worst part of donating.

Donate blood.


And even if you don't do that, at least sign up to be an organ donor FFS.
 
Science needs to find a way to make pills easier to swallow. I can't swallow them and have to chew/crush them :(
 
Wag said:
Hypospray stuff from Star Trek is strictly fictional. If you're thinking of the Epipen it's totally different and still uses a needle.
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Not the epipen. He is talking about using air pressure to "inject" a powdered, subq medicine. Its pretty cool. I used to use one for a medication I had to take.

MikeDip said:
Science needs to find a way to make pills easier to swallow. I can't swallow them and have to chew/crush them :(
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Sure they're not suppositories?
 
speculawyer said:
Oh man up. My 7 year old daughter can handle that.
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No it's not a case of not wanting to, it's a medical thing. Solids have a tough time going down my throat, the back of my tough has to push against the back of my throat when I swallow meaning the pills stay in my mouth. Even if I put a pill in like some apple sauce, my throat squeezes the sauce down and keeps the pill right there.

Router said:
Sure they're not suppositories?
Click to expand...

I'm not even kidding, I get so happy when I get prescribed suppositories since those are easier to get into my body.
 
MikeDip said:
No it's not a case of not wanting to, it's a medical thing. Solids have a tough time going down my throat, the back of my tough has to push against the back of my throat when I swallow meaning the pills stay in my mouth. Even if I put a pill in like some apple sauce, my throat squeezes the sauce down and keeps the pill right there.
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Cant you just dissolve it?
 
But what are the cons? Needles are easy, safe and effective. It takes two seconds for a subcutaneous or intramuscular injection.

EDIT: Mike, I was the same way till about 4 years ago. I couldn't swallow a pill for the life of me. But one day after having to chew disgusting1000 mg of Tylenol when I was sick, I decided I can't go through life having to get chewable pills.

I started off with small aspirin. Some went to waste but I got comfortable with the size. Then moved onto advil sized etc.

Suffice to say, I can now take an entire animal pak weightlifting supplement in one gulp. If you've seen them, they are like 11 horse sized pills lol.
 
MikeDip said:
No it's not a case of not wanting to, it's a medical thing. Solids have a tough time going down my throat, the back of my tough has to push against the back of my throat when I swallow meaning the pills stay in my mouth. Even if I put a pill in like some apple sauce, my throat squeezes the sauce down and keeps the pill right there.
Click to expand...

Do you take like 2 hours to eat a meal? Most food people swallow has huge chunks of solids.
 
I once had to get my blood drawn, the nurse lady put the needle in my left arm and attempted to extract, but nothing came out. It was right in the vein I could see it there and nothing happened. She took the needle out, put it back in, same thing. She kept wiggling it around to try to get blood out which was ...uncomfortable, to say the least, but tolerable.

After about a minute of this she got someone else to come in to see if they could figure out what was wrong, same thing. They ended up just taking it out of my right arm which worked fine. Weird as hell I still have no clue how that happened. I don't have a phobia of needles so I was fine but I can't imagine the reaction if that ever happened to someone terrified of them lol.
 
akachan ningen said:
We were talking about science cheerleaders not the article. You're out of your element.
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I am not Donny. You were bitching about 'they' needing to give more credit to individual scientists. Be clearer if you don't want to look like a crazy rambling fool. Why do individuals need to give more credit to individuals when you were talking about role models, and the media article had his name all over it? Go yell at clouds or something.
 
MikeDip said:
Science needs to find a way to make pills easier to swallow. I can't swallow them and have to chew/crush them :(
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Haha I'm with you on this. I can't swallow pills at all but I have gotten better cause I need to take some to lower the inflammation on my hamstring. I would crush them into tiny pieces in my mouth then swallow it with water. Now I can swallow bigger chunks and hopefully I can swallow it whole once I'm done with the pills. It's a mental thing for me.
 
MikeDip said:
Science needs to find a way to make pills easier to swallow. I can't swallow them and have to chew/crush them :(
Click to expand...

If you apply the same principle of this new vaccine, you could divide one pill by a thousand particles which are easier to swallow as a whole.
 
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