Painless patch could replace flu jab

Yemen cholera outbreak shows signs of slowing

PARIS, June 28, (AFP): Vaccines delivered via a painless, throw-away patch could one day eliminate the need for needle-andsyringe flu injections, researchers said Wednesday after completing a preliminary trial.

Equipped with micro-needles, the patches vaccinated against influenza just as effectively as a standard flu jab, they reported in the medical journal The Lancet.

“This bandage-strip sized patch of dissolvable needles can transform how we get vaccinated,” said Roderic Pettigrew, director of the US National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which funded the study.

The new technology can be selfadministered and stored without refrigeration, making it significantly cheaper that traditional vaccines.

“It holds the promise for delivering other vaccines in the future,” Pettigrew added.

A hundred tiny needles — just long enough to penetrate the skin — embedded in each patch dissolve within minutes when exposed to moisture from the body.

Adhesive holds the patch close the skin while the vaccine is released, and can be peeled away after 20 minutes and discarded.

In phase I clinical trials, researchers from Emory University in Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology randomly divided 100 adults into four groups.

Three received the micro-needle patches: one delivered by a healthcare provider; one self-administered; and the third — delivered by a nurse — a placebo without any active ingredients.

The fourth group received a classic flu jab with a syringe.

All the active flu vaccines worked equally well for at least six months, regardless of whether they were delivered by professionals or the patient, or whether they were administered by a syringe or a microneedle.

The manufacturing cost for the patches is expected to be about the same as for pre-filled syringes.

Also: GENEVA: A cholera outbreak in

Yemen, which has claimed 1,400 lives in two months, shows tentative signs of slowing as fatality rates drop by half, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Nearly 219,000 suspected cases have been registered since April 27 and more than 1,400 people have died, the UN agency said.

The collapse of Yemen’s infrastructure after more than two years of war between the Saudibacked government and Shiite rebels who control the capital has made for a “perfect storm for cholera,” the WHO’s senior emergency adviser for Yemen, Ahmed

Zouiten, said.