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Eradication Efforts Need Needle-Free Delivery
Rebecca Voelker
JAMA. 1999;281:1879-1881.
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Bethesda, Md—When public health experts set out decades ago to rid the world of smallpox, they took aim at the deadly disease with a needle and syringe in mass vaccination campaigns. Today, as measles looms large in the crosshairs of upcoming eradication efforts, needle-and-syringe systems are viewed as woefully inadequate for worldwide immunization programs.
The problem is straightforward. Needles can transmit bloodborne illnesses as well as deliver vaccine. In some developing nations, where HIV and hepatitis B virus infections are epidemic, the introduction of mass immunizations with needles could spell disaster if the needles are reused out of habit and to control costs. Improper disposal of contaminated needles can put entire communities at risk. And public health workers intent on vaccinating hundreds or thousands per day are at increased risk of infection from needlesticks.
But the need for safe, effective needle-free injection methods isn't just in developing . . . [Full Text of this Article]
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
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Needle-free delivery of macromolecules across the skin by nanoliter-volume pulsed microjets
Arora et al.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2007;104:4255-4260.
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