A breaktrough in medicine after 160 years ...
http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_kendall_demo_a_needle_free_vaccine_patch_that_s_safer_and_way_cheaper.html
Some quote's:
(...) "In 1853 a Scotsman filed his very first patent on the needle and syringe. His name was Alexander Wood, and it was at the Royal College of Physicians. This is the patent. What blows my mind when I look at it even today is that it looks almost identical to the needle in use today. Yet, it's 160 years old."
(...) "Let's consider the big three: HIV, malaria, tuberculosis. They're responsible for about 7 million deaths per year, and there is no adequate vaccination method for any of those."
(...) "Now, the stakes are very high. The WHO estimates that within Africa, up to half the vaccines used there are considered to not be working properly because at some point the cold chain has fallen over. So it's a big problem, and it's tied in with the needle and syringe because it's a liquid form vaccine, and when it's liquid it needs the refrigeration. A key attribute of our Nanopatch is that the vaccine is dry, and when it's dry it doesn't need refrigeration. Within my lab we've shown that we can keep the vaccine stored at 23 degrees Celsius for more than a year without any loss in activity at all. That's an important improvement." (Applause)
