Eliminating needles

One of the greatest shortcomings of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) use in developing countries involves the requirement to administer the vaccine through needle injections (subcutaneous, intramuscular or intradermal). The disadvantages of using needles are pain at the site of administration, logistical difficulties, safety and disposal concerns. Additionally, vaccine administration with syringes requires trained medical staff and precludes the involvement of the legions of non-medical volunteers currently available to assist with OPV campaigns. For this reason, studies in Cuba and Oman – which are testing the viability of a fractional dose and evaluating serologic response to 1/5th of a standard dose - have employed the use of an intradermal jet injector which uses no sharps and can be manually reset without batteries or compressed air charges.

If these studies prove successful, they would confer non-inferior serologic and mucosal immunity at 1/5th of the cost of the current IPV dose and could be administered by volunteers with an innovative and painless tool. These results could influence global policy recommendations on IPV for middle and low-income countries in the future. Preliminary results of these trials should be available by late-2008.