The United States is facing a shortage of four critical drugs used for common illnesses in children as virus season returns in full force.
Authorities have declared a shortage of first-line antibiotics, amoxicillin and Augmentin, used to treat bacterial infections. Tamiflu, the most common flu drug in the United States, and albuterol, an inhaler for asthma and for opening the airways in the lungs, are also in short supply, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
“Right now, we have a severe drug shortage. There is no Tamiflu for children. There is almost no Tamiflu for adults. And this is the brand name and generic,” Renae Kraft, a relief pharmacist in Oklahoma City, told CNN.
“As far as antibiotics go, there aren’t many,” she added.
Parents reported spending hours going from one pharmacy to another to find medicines to cure illnesses.
“In my 25 years as a pediatrician, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Dr. Stacene Maroushek, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Hennepin Healthcare in Minnesota. “I’ve seen families who just don’t get a break. They have one viral disease after another. And now there’s the side effect of ear infections and pneumonia from amoxicillin deficiency.”
The shortage is due to increased demand, especially with an increase in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza cases. The combination of RSV, Flu, and circulating COVID has been termed “tripledemic.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is “high” or “very high” respiratory viral activity in more than half of the states. About 1 in 5 tests for RSV in the nation tested positive in the past week.
Current hospitalization rates for flu are typically those seen in December or January (about 8 per 100,000 people), and the cumulative hospitalization rate hasn’t been this high at the start of the flu season in more than a decade.
Tamiflu fills are ten times higher for this time of year, according to GoodRx.com. People are six times more likely to take Tamiflu now than they are now in 2019, the last flu season before the pandemic.
It’s not clear why amoxicillin and Augmentin are in such high demand, but these drugs are known to treat many common ailments, including ear, sinus, and throat infections.
“Whenever respiratory viruses emerge, people start prescribing antibiotics, even inappropriately, and that creates a huge demand. This was not anticipated by the manufacturers of amoxicillin, so it caused a shortage,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia have reported the highest levels of flu activity, according to the CDC. Pharmaceutical companies are trying to ramp up drug production, but it will take time.
Companies make the drugs based on orders placed before flu season, and this year’s orders didn’t predict how bad the season would be. “The rapid combination of the impact of the pandemic and the resulting demand swings, production capacity constraints, raw material shortages, and the current energy crisis means that we are currently facing an exceptionally difficult situation,” said Sandoz, a company that makes generic amoxicillin, in a statement.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released guidance for pharmacists on how to make children’s liquid amoxicillin from the adult pill version in an effort to alleviate the shortage.
