Q. A recent Associated Press article in the AJC about a new way of injecting the flu vaccine prompts my question. When I was in the military (early 1960s), vaccinations were given with a “compressed air gun” (my terminology) pressed tightly against the upper arm while a fine jet of vaccine was injected under high pressure through the skin. Quick, relatively painless and no needle. Is the method still being used? If not, what are the reasons for its demise?
-- Dan Cowles, Cumming
A. The old-style "multi-use nozzle jet injectors" were withdrawn from military and public health use in the 1990s because they were unsafe for potentially transmitting blood-borne pathogens from one vaccinee to the next, Dr. Bruce G. Weniger, associate editor of Vaccine magazine, told Q&A on the News. But a new generation of jet injectors with single-use, disposable syringes are "still alive and kicking," he wrote in an e-mail. Weniger, who is retired from the U.S. Public Health Service and a guest researcher for the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, added that, among other uses, the single-use disposable syringes may be delivering the injectable inactivated polio vaccine, without needles, once the eradication program deems it wise to remove live oral polio vaccine from the world. The Associated Press reported that Sanofi Pasteur's Fluzone Intradermal uses a shorter needle -- less than one-tenth of an inch long -- to inject the flu vaccine just below the skin's surface.
Lori Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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