Welcome to the future folks; no longer do we use needles for injecting vaccine for flu in your arm. Yes, that’s right, meet this amazing jet injector that is capable of shooting the flu vaccine into your arm without using a needle. The jet injector has been named as PharmaJet Needle-free Jet Injector and has been inspired by the vaccination guns that have been in use since the 1960s as per the US National Library of Medicine.
The very first ones were powered by foot pumps or electricity and were utilized for administering smallpox vaccines. In fact, they had a big role in getting rid of the disease back then. However, as per National Library of Medicine, “Ultimately, the bifurcated needle came to be preferred over the jet injector.” Since it required only a quarter as much vaccine and turned out to be highly reliable. However, the jet injector is back again and was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for flu vaccination in August 2014.
How it works? It works by injecting the flu vaccine at pressures that are high enough to allow a very fine stream of liquid to penetrate the patient’s skin and enter the muscle. The patient merely feels a slight pressure along with a small pop as the PharmaJet injects the flu vaccine. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated only 16-84 persons can get the vaccine as per the PharmaJet injector.
The shot being administered by PharmaJet has three strains of the flu virus that render it ‘trivalent’. As per CDC, this year’s combination has two influenzas, (H1N1 and H3N2) viruses and one influenza B virus.