Inhalable measles vaccine
One roadblock to vaccination for many different diseases is that delivery is often via syringe, and often requires a consistent “cold chain” so the vaccine does not lose efficacy. This means from the moment it’s produced the clock is ticking on each vaccine dose — healthcare workers must use coolers and rush to get the doses to their patients as quickly as possible. Safe sharps disposal is another issue, making sure syringes aren’t re-used (auto-disable syringes are often used, but at increased cost)
Researchers at University of Colorado at Boulder have developed a vaccine that is inhalable through ‘carbondioxide assisted nebulisation’ and will soon be undergoing trial in India. The lack of infrastructure (for proper cold-chain maintenance and vaccine distribution) in India and other parts of Southeast Asia makes it a good place to test this vaccine. The inhalable form promises to offer better access for health workers to uninoculated populations, and it will do so at approximately the same cost as the injectable version (10 cents for the device, 17 cents for the dose … a one cent increase over the current vaccine).
