The national government announced Wednesday it is releasing prescription flu medicine from the national stockpile, while metro Atlanta parents caring for sick children are finding empty shelves where pediatric cold and flu medicines should be.
The nation is continuing to deal with an unusually early and intense cold and flu season that began in the fall. Products like Children’s Tylenol, Advil and Motrin and some antibiotics are hard to find in some pharmacies.
Aside from over-the-counter products, the prescription antibiotic amoxicillin also is in short supply due to increased demand, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The drug is often used to treat nose and throat infections in children.
The shortages of children’s medications is “definitely a big problem,” said Dr. Hugo Scornik, a pediatrician and past president of the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “We’re encountering this every day and it’s really getting bad.”
Part of the problem is simply demand. Scornik said doctors are seeing a spike in cases of several viral illnesses at the same time, and high numbers of cases happened earlier than usual.
In Georgia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that for the week ending Dec. 10, 5.3% of all visits to doctors were for influenza-like illnesses, including the seasonal flu, adenovirus and RSV or respiratory syncytial virus. Nationally, that number was even higher at 6.9% of all doctor visits. Georgia’s rate of flu-like sickness has been dropping since reaching a peak in the week ending Nov. 5.
Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson said it is not experiencing widespread shortages of Children’s Tylenol, but the product may be “less readily available” at some stores. The company said it is running production lines around the clock, according to the Associated Press.
For desperate parents with sick children, Scornik suggests they pick up the phone. Your child’s doctor can suggest a medication alternative that can work just as well as name brands.
Scornik doesn’t suggest cutting an adult pill in half to treat a child. Most children will want the liquid medication and it’s tricky to get the precise dosage by breaking an adult pill, he said.
When searching for children’s medicine, he suggested parents look for smaller independent pharmacies or those in places farther outside of cities that may still have the products in stock.
Dr. Laura Badwan of East Cobb Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine said typically she recommends Tamiflu for children who are more severely affected by the flu or who have underlying medical conditions, but that prescription treatment is also in shortage.
The Biden administration said Wednesday it will release doses of Tamiflu from the Strategic National Stockpile to states that request it.
For less severe illnesses that don’t require a prescription, Badwan recommends children’s versions of Tylenol and Motrin, but because all have been harder to find this season, she suggests using supportive care instead: measures such as rest, hydration, lukewarm showers and placing a cold compress on the forehead.
“There’s just overwhelming demand,” for those products and antibiotics, Badwan said. “It’s been more sickness that normal.”
To help parents and patients, her office now prints out prescriptions rather than sending them to a pharmacist electronically so if the medicine is not in stock it can easily be carried to another pharmacy.
Ira Katz, a pharmacist and owner of Little Five Points Pharmacy in Atlanta, said he is limiting purchases of liquid Children’s Advil, Children’s Motrin and Children’s Tylenol to one per customer.
Major drugstore chains are taking the same steps. According to the Associated Press, CVS Health has placed a two-product limit on all children’s pain relief products bought through its pharmacies or online. Walgreens is limiting customers online to six purchases of children’s over-the-counter fever reducing products.
“Please be patient and slowly things will come back to normal, said Katz. “I tell people not to get panicky and don’t hoard.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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