A Flu Shot for the Squeamish

Flu Shot

This fall, people seeking flu shots can be able to skip the big, scary needle and choose a new short-needle flu shot, called Fluzone intradermal, Fluzone intradermal uses a shorter, thinner pine needle called a microneedle to give flu shots just below the skin, rather than deeper in the muscle like standard flu shots.

The shots' manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, said the microneedles are less than one-10th of an inch long and are about the width of a human hair normal flu shots are given with needles up to one and a half inches long, Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of defensive medicine at Vanderbilt School of Medicine, said that when he tried a short-needle shot previous this year, he barely felt it.

"The immediate inoculation is virtually imperceptible", he added that deliver the shot to the skin instead of the muscle can aid patients avoid the deep muscle ache associated with a standard flu shot the shot delivers the vaccine to a coating of cells just underneath the surface of the skin, called dendritic cells, Dr. Ralph Tripp, professor of infectious diseases by the side of the University of Georgia, said this is an perfect spot for a vaccine, since these cells deal directly with the body's immune system.

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