An injection that can be delivered without a needle could be just around the corner. The jab, using a laser, is said to be "virtually painless" because it doesn't break the skin.
The technology is called the "Bubble Gun," and it works by pushing tiny droplets of the vaccine into the outer layer of the patient's skin, bypassing the nerves.
"Within a millisecond, the glass that contains the liquid is heated by a laser, a bubble is created in the liquid, pushing the liquid out at a velocity of at least 100 km per hour (60 mph)," said Fernandez Rivas, a professor at Twente University in the Netherlands who has developed the idea.
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The testing of the protype on tissue samples was done with a $1.73 million grant from the European Union, and the technology could hit doctors' offices within three years.
And while parents with screaming toddlers might be the first to applaud this news, the technology would also be welcomed by a much wider chunk of the general population.
In the Netherlands, an estimated one in five people are afraid of needles. And one in 1,000 people have a phobia requiring them to get special assistance to receive an injection.
"Phobia of needles is more common than you might think. People are ashamed to admit it,”said Henk Schen, a therapist helping people dealing with this challenge.