County Flu Shots are Going Needle Free (and Practically Painless)

Flu shots will be pretty much ouchless if you get them through the Middlesex County Health Department this season.

Starting next month, the county offices charged with dispensing vaccines that help families and children ward off potentially dangerous flu infections will be offering flu shots that don't require the use of needles.

The needle-free injectors use an accelerant to shoot a stream of vaccine under high pressure through the skin and into the muscle in less than a second. 

They'll be offered upon request to patients who visit Middlesex County Flu Clinics starting Monday, Oct. 3.

It's a relief to patients who have a dread of needles, said Regina Todd, spokesman for PharmaJet, one of several companies that's devised their own unique technology to help health departments go needle free.

"It's over in less than a third of a second," Todd said, who herself has received 10 shots via her company's unique needle-free injector.

"It feels at most like a rubber band snap. Of the shots I've had, I only felt one."

PharmaJet has provided its needleless technology to most of the counties in New Jersey who are adopting the needle-free vaccination system, Todd said.

Needle free systems themselves have been around for decades, but they were clumsy, inaccurate, and sometimes almost as painful as regular shots. After World War 2, the 'jet injectors' were used to give mass inoculations quickly. Older systems were inaccurate and carried a risk of spreading infection; in 1986, a hepatitis B outbreak was attributed to the use of a multi-use injector system.

That's just not true anymore with new technology. Many needle-less systems use CO2 gas to propel vaccines through the skin and muscle. PharmaJet's proprietary system replaced the gas propellant with a spring system that achieves the same objective, without the need to dispose of the gas cylinders, Todd said.

"The spring-powered system is more gentle. It takes less effort to get through the skin."

The needle-free injectors aren't more expensive than traditional needle and syringe inoculations. Middlesex County is charging $15 per flu shot at its clinics, whether the vaccine is delivered needle free or via regular needle and syringe, said Acting County Health Dept. Director Katherine Antonitis.

The needle-free injectors have a sanitary, single use format , and the inserts can be disposed of in regular trash or recycled, unlike traditional needles, Todd said.

"You don't have the cost of disposing of needles in red [medical] waste boxes."

Needle-free shots are a huge favorite with parents, since children typically are fearful of needles and shots. In her company's surveys, Todd said that the system has a 96 percent approval rating.

Antonitis said vaccine recipients who want the needle-free flu shots at clinics should call the county health department first at 732-745-3100 to make sure the location they are patronizing will have them ready for use.

While the county handles the public flu inoculations for most municipalities, large townships such as Woodbridge and Edison have their own health departments who perform the vaccine function.

Neither Woodbridge nor Edison are using the needle-free inoculation technology, at least not for this flu season.

Woodbridge will be offering flu shot clinics on Tues, Sept. 27 at the Evergreen Center in Colonia, and on Tues., Oct. 4, at the Woodbridge Health Dept. behind the Main Library. For more info or to make an appointment in Woodbridge, call the township's nursing division at 732-855-0600, ext. 5011 or 5012.