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Polymer Patches May Enable Effective DNA Vaccines
Zothecula writes "Taking a two-month-old in for vaccination shots and watching them get stuck with six needles in rapid succession can be painful for child and parent alike. If the work of an MIT team of researchers pans out, those needles may be thing of the past thanks to a new dissolvable polymer film that allows the vaccination needle to be replaced with a patch. This development will not only make vaccinations less harrowing, but also allow for developing and delivering vaccines for diseases too dangerous for conventional techniques."
The patch was designed with delivering DNA-based vaccines in mind. Thus far efforts to use DNA to generate more robust and safe vaccines has failed thanks to the immune system destroying them; the polymer film embeds itself in your skin and slowly dissolves, protecting the DNA in the process.
injections in succession?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I somehow have the impression that I've seen this done before with "Lysergic acid diethylamide". Guess it's becoming more _mainstream_ now.
While I believe this is a good thing for vaccinations, I know it will be abused.
If all it takes to inject someone with a vaccine is a thin dis-solvable layer, like that of a temporary tattoo, this will surely be abused by people.
Instead of applying a vaccine, one could apply a deadly virus. The technology could also be used do deliver narcotics where they would no longer require hypodermic needles. You'd get a dime bag of patches.
How easy would it be to make a Roofie patch. You don't have to watch your drink any more just don't have exposed skin.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
I'd wager it's because no one cares.
There are only two smartphone platforms, Android and iOS.
It's like complaining that there's no article about a Haiku lanuch... it's not really relevant in the market.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
I can't wait to develop for BB10!
Said no mobile development company, ever.
6 shots for a 2 months old baby? * Takes his daughter to the doctor and demands the 4 remaining shots *
It had better stay on well, AND be placed between the shoulder blades where kids can't reach it.
Even a two-month old will try to peel off a band-aid.
I'm actually 99% convinced that the reason people so readily believe vaccines cause terrible things is because the experience of holding an infant's hand while she receives their shots is so traumatizing people are looking for any excuse to not do it.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Life is pain. My five-year-old doesn't even cry anymore when she gets her shots -- she is brave as hell -- and when we are done, we go get ice cream. I can see this as good for preventing infection at the site of the vaccination, but shots aren't that bad once you get used to them.
The launch event is in progress. There won't be a Slashdot article until it finishes, just as Slashdot generally waits until after a Stevenote or Google presentation before posting a story about the latest Apple crap or innovations in the Android world.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
*Everything* has the potential to "be abused". Instead, think of the good this could do though: drug-abusers could at least avoid Hepatitis-C and HIV and other blood-communicable diseases by using patches instead of needles. And as pointed out, children getting the vaccines don't have to dread being poked with sharp needles. There are possibly a whole host of medicines that could be delivered this way, which seems safer than sticking metal into one's veins or muscles, especially if proper sanitation is an issue. And for people who have syncope issues (yes, we're out there), getting a vaccination or whatever doesn't always have to be an exercise in panic and embarrassment.
I say the potential good outweighs the potential bad here.
My kids only eat what they can kill. Since we live in the city, it's tough on them (and on the neighborhood pigeons), but they're going to true Nietzschean superpeople when I'm done with them!
Why not transparent aluminum hypo-sprays?
--- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
I'm sure the polymer causes autism. I just know it.
Honestly I don't see a problem
You can be easily infected by deadly viruses via any number of methods, many of which you'd never notice. A scratch with a contaminated thumbtack would be enough for most nasty viruses.
If narcotic delivery were possible and caught on it would be a big win for everyone - the addicts wouldn't be tempted to reuse needles, and the rest of us wouldn't have to worry about used needles being improperly disposed of.
As for a roofie patch, roofies are dangerous because they can be quickly and covertly slipped into a drink, whereas you're much more likely to notice someone putting a patch on you - even if it takes you a few minutes to notice that someone has put a sticker on you it'll still be a lot more obvious and you'll have a window of opportunity to get help before the microneedles dissolve.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
There was an article about the last Haiku release.
Personally a Haiku release is more important than a BB release.
Enjoy your polio.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Another case where I wish I had "off topic" mod points available...
With a shot, the pediatrician/nurse administers the shot and it's done. Anti-vax nuts can opt out, but at least there's a record of them having opted out in the child's medical history. With this patch, it sounds really easy for the anti-vax parent to go get it done to avoid suspicion/confrontation, then rip it off their kid as soon as they leave the doctor's office, resulting in a child whose medical history says they had a vaccine, but who never really got one.
This could really help third world countries. Right now, vaccines (for the most part) need refrigeration so delivering them to remote areas can be a problem. If these skin patch vaccines don't need refrigeration, it will be easier to transport them. Even if they need to be kept cool, it should be easier to keep a hundred skin patches cold than keeping a hundred needles cold. (Plus the benefit of no used needles to dispose of while in the middle of nowhere.)
Finally, the medical expertise you'd need to apply these is likely minimal. Slap a patch on, wait a few minutes, take the patch off. Done. No need to know just how to safely inject the vaccine into the person.
This could really revolutionize vaccines in third world countries which, in turn, could drastically improve their quality of life.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Can they develop a bigger patch to entirely cover the mouth of Jenny McCarthy? Permanently?
FTA: There are two basic kinds of vaccines. The first uses attenuated viruses. This common and relatively simple method uses “dead” or inactive viruses. As far as the body is concerned, it’s the proteins that encase the virus that are important, not whether or not the virus is “alive.” Wrong! Attenuated viruses are not "dead." They have been modified so as to cause much less-severe disease than the wild-type, but are still infectious. You might want to read the actual paper if you want to understand this topic.
Watching your child die from a horrible, preventable disease.
Vaccines don't work. “Up to 90% of the total decline in the death rate of children between 1860-1965 because of whooping cough, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and measles occurred before the introduction of immunisations and antibiotics.” Dr. Archie Kalokerinos, M.D. PhD. “In 1954 the Americans pushed forward a polio campaign. What happened within the first year was that to their horror they found that particularily one type of the polio vaccine was causing polio. Because the vaccine is not a killed virus, your giving polio in a partly killed form. They got rid of that particular type of the vaccine. Then they realized that all the forms of the polio vaccine caused polio. So what they did is redefine it. They only called it polio if you still had paralysis after 60 days. Now in most cases polio paralysis resolves after a few days. So that's how the statistics of polio went down. By changing the definitions.” Dr. David Ritchie
There is alot of propaganda begind vaccines. It's all bogus. “Polio has not been eradicated by vaccination, it is lurking behind a redefinition and new diagnostic names like viral or aseptic meningitis...According to one of the 1997 issues of the MMWR there are some 30,000 to 50,000 cases of viral meningitis in the United States alone. That's where all those 30,000 - 50,000 cases of polio disappeared after the introduction of mass vaccination” Dr. Vera Schiebner
There's lot's more of this. Many people die from vaccinations every year. The whole thing is a big scam.