A new vaccine patch could eliminate the need to painful needles and boost the overall effectiveness of immunization against diseases like flu, say American researchers.

The patch has hundreds of tiny needles which dissolved the vaccine into the skin.

Testing with mice showed that the new technology may produce better immunization responses than conventional needle pokes.

Writing in Nature Medicine, the research team said the patch could enable people to vacciante themselves.

With each patch, developed by researchers at Emory university and the Georgia Institute of Technology, come 100 “microneedles” that are just 0.65 mm in length.

They are designed to penetrate outer skin, dissolving on contact.

The researchers tested the technology by loading the needles with an influenza vaccine.

A group of mice was given the flu vaccine using the normal hypodermic needle, and another group were vaccinated with the patch.

A control group was a group of mice with patches that lacked vaccine.

Three months later, the team saw that the patch seemed to produce more effective immune responsese in mice, then infected with the virus, than a standard vaccination.

If their future trials prove to be effective, the patch could mean the end of the need to medican training to deliver vaccines and turn vaccination into a painless procedure the people could do themselves.

It could also simplify massive pandemic vaccinations, the researchers said.

Though the study only looked into the flu vaccine, the scientists think that it will be useful for other immunizations and would not cost any more than using a needle.

"We envision people getting the patch in the mail or at a pharmacy and then self-administering it at home," said Sean Sullivan, the study lead from Georgia Tech.

"Because the microneedles on the patch dissolve away into the skin, there would be no dangerous sharp needles left over."

Professor Richard Compans, co-author of the study from Emory University Medical School, said that the vaccine does not need to penetrate deeply because there are immune cells present just under the surface of the skin.

"We hope there could be some studies in humans within the next couple of years," he said.