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Powdered measles vaccine shows promise in early clinical trials

"You don’t need to worry about needles; you don’t need to worry about reconstituting vaccines with clean water," said Robert Sievers.

By Brooks Hays
A map showing global rates of measles vaccination. Photo by WHO/UNICEF.
A map showing global rates of measles vaccination. Photo by WHO/UNICEF.

BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 26 (UPI) -- No more arm pricks and colorful bandages for kids getting their measles vaccination. A new vaccine for the virus is making headway in early clinical trials -- and it comes in powder form, taken not through injection but inhalation.

"Delivering vaccines in the conventional way, with needle injections, poses some serious challenges, especially in resource-poor parts of the world," Robert Sievers, a professor in the University of Colorado Boulder's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, explained in recent press release.

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The newly tested vaccine proved safe for human use in early clinical trials. Previous testing has confirmed the vaccine's protective capabilities, preventing monkeys and rats from contracting the deadly disease.

The most recent work of Sievers of his colleagues was detailed this week in the journal Vaccine.

According to the World Health Organization, the highly contagious virus claimed the lives of some 145,700 in 2013, a 19 percent jump from the year before. WHO estimates roughly 21.5 million children weren't vaccinated in 2013. About 60 percent of those children live in just a handful of developing countries -- including India, Pakistan and Nigeria.

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Any development that makes vaccinating these children easier is likely to save lives. And Sievers says his research team's powdered vaccine can do just that, eliminating the need for needles and diminishing the risk of vaccine contamination.

"You don't need to worry about needles; you don't need to worry about reconstituting vaccines with clean water; you don't need to worry about disposal of sharps waste or other vaccine wastage issues; and dry delivery is cheaper," Sievers said.

The powdered vaccine will now move on to testing phases involving human subjects not already immune to the virus.

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