• Question: Will there ever be a way of getting vaccinations (eg Cervical cancer jabs) without the use of a needle?

    Asked by Chloe_Sutherland25 to Alan, Becky, Jo, Sankar, Sarah on 11 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Alan McCue

      Alan McCue answered on 11 Mar 2015:

      I don’t know the answer to this one. Hopefully someone else knows more

    • Photo: Jo Sadler

      Jo Sadler answered on 11 Mar 2015:

      Yes – there is already a flu vaccine that you can inhale as a spray through your nose!

      As lots of vaccines are biomolecules like antibodies, we need to find a way of getting the vaccine into three body that doesn’t go through the stomach (the acid and enzymes in the digestive system would oprobably destroy the vaccine). This is why often they are injected directly into the blood – but any other method not involving swallowing something is theoretically possible.

    • Photo: Becky Gregory

      Becky Gregory answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      Needles are used to get the vaccines straight into the bloodstream, without them having to go through the stomach, where they could be destroyed.
      However, in the past (in the 60s), the polio vaccine was given as a few drops of liquid on the tongue. Indeed, in the US they started to serve it on sugar cubes to young children.
      Unfortunately, I think that doctors will always use needles for vaccines at it is the most direct method, as much as we all hate being stabbed by them!

    • Photo: Sarah Kirk

      Sarah Kirk answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Some vaccinations do not require a needle – when I was at school I had to swallow something (I think it must have been the polio vaccine), it was yucky. Needles hurt sometimes but as Becky said, they are the most effective way for most vaccines to work unfortunately!

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