Since the start of the pandemic, researchers around the world have tried to develop various methods to vaccinate against covid-19 as effectively as possible.

Now, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia, together with American colleagues, have developed a patch that painlessly slides the vaccine, and also other medicines, through the skin.

The technology would make it much easier for children and those who are afraid of syringes to get vital medicine quickly, and according to the study, which was done on mice and published in the medical journal Science Advances, the method can even increase the vaccine's effectiveness.

Cooling storage is also not required, which would further facilitate distribution.

Microscopic needles

The patches, which are one square centimeter in size, contain more than 5,000 microscopically small needles - so small that they are neither visible nor felt.

The needles are covered with vaccine and the patch is put in place with an applicator that looks like an ice hockey puck.

- It feels as if someone is touching your skin, says David Muller, virologist at the university and co-author of the study, to AFP.

The mice that received patches produced a higher level of antibodies, even in the lungs, after two doses compared to the mice that received regular injections.

The researchers also found that the mice given a dose of patches that contained another substance that boosted the immune system did not get sick at all.

One reason why the patch may be more effective than a syringe is that the vaccine is normally injected into muscles but that muscle tissue does not contain very many immune cells, according to the researchers.

The vaccine patch, on the other hand, causes minimal local tissue death, which is thought to make the body's immune system act and work more efficiently.

Trials will start next year

The patch is said to withstand relatively high temperatures and does not require any medically trained staff, which would make it easier to distribute in developing countries, among other places.

The technology has been under development since 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA.

The new study is done by the Australian company Vaxxas and trials on humans are planned to start in April next year.