Syringes have caused fear in many patients since 1850. But now, there are findings of the latest medical devices free of syringes promising an effective treatment as well as away from the pain.
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| Kendall examines Nanopatches. Made from silicon wafers, they're embedded with tiny spikes that are coated with vaccine. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1fygQo) |
An Australian biomedical engineer named Mark Kendall made the Nanopatch, a new needle-free medical device that is smaller than a postage stamp, but it has a big effect. Its portability can help to lower the global death rate from tuberculosis, malaria, HPV, and other infectious diseases. Even this device can eradicate polio as well.
Nanopatch unlike most vaccines require cold chain protection to keep the medicinal properties from the plant to storage. The device is actually equipped with thousands of small dry nails coated vaccine. Additionally, Nanopatch attached to the skin with a spring device, push the drug into some of the cells under the skin. This feature is a boon for those areas in underdeveloped and electricity shortages.
"Thus, the immune response will be more effective than a syringe, which inserts the drug into the muscle," said Kendall. This device is also safer than syringes which injuring many and becomes one of the openings for the spread of disease to the medical personels.
"An old technology may be difficult to beat, but we have a new technology that may eventually beat the old ones," he added.
Kendall first designed the Nanopatch in 2004, when he was a researcher at Oxford University. He also has to figure out its potential uses in Papua New Guinea, a country with levels of HPV-related cervical cancer cases highest in the world, but do not have access to preventative treatment.
"Papua New Guinea is so a good place to test. The country with the size of France only has 800 refrigrators but not all of them can function properly, and not easily accessible by many people," said Kendall, who is now a professor at the University of Queensland.
Vaxxas, a biotechnology company founded by Kendall, has attracted the interest of the World Health Organization (WHO), which will conduct studies injectable polio vaccine in 2017.
Kendall said he realized that the discovery takes at least a decade before it could be produced commercially.
"The prospect of making something that could make a difference for millions of people is a wonderful feeling, is not there something more I wanted to do. But I will not be satisfied until this technology out of the lab and onto the places that need," he concluded. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | VAXXAS | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC]
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