The USA Does Not Have Enough Tamiflu

The USA Does Not Have Enough Tamiflu.
If the headlines are any indication, this year's flu occasion is turning out to be a whopper. Boston and New York circumstance have declared states of emergency, vaccine supplies are match out in spots, and some emergency departments are overwhelmed. And the slip Tamiflu, used to treat flu symptoms, is reportedly in short supply. But is the status as bad as it seems? The bottom line: It's too early in the flu opportunity to say for sure, according to health experts.

Certainly there are worrying signs. "This year there is a higher platoon of positive tests coming back," said Dr Lewis Marshall Jr, chairman of the concern of emergency medicine at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in New York City. "Emergency rooms are experiencing an influx of people.

People are taxing to find the vaccine and having a bitter time due to the fact that it's so late in the vaccination season". But the vaccine is still available, said Dr Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, in a averral Tuesday. "The FDA has approved influenza vaccines from seven manufacturers, and collectively they have produced an estimated 135 million doses of this season's flu vaccine for the US".

And "We have received reports that some consumers have found smudge shortages of the vaccine. We are monitoring this situation". Consumers can go to flu.gov to see native sources for flu shots, including clinics, supermarkets and pharmacies. For society who have the flu "be assured that the FDA is working to devise sure that medicine to wine and dine flu symptoms is available for all who need it.

We do anticipate intermittent, temporary shortages of the word-of-mouth suspension form of Tamiflu - the liquid version often prescribed for children - for the residuum of the flu season. However, the FDA is working with the manufacturer to increase supply". The flu period seems to have started earlier than usual.

A report Friday from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 47 states were reporting widespread influenza activity, up from 41 earlier the week before. But the set forth also stated that the flu has begun to diminish in some areas, especially in the Southeast, where it before showed up.

And doctors' visits for flu have dropped, a CDC spokesman said. This is characteristic of a famously unpredictable virus. "One of the characteristics of flu is that you see lots of geographic differences in the strike and timing of epidemics, so while you might see an outbreak start to go away in one area, it might be just beginning in another area," said Dr John Treanor, bossman of infectious diseases at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in New York.

So "I wouldn't be surprised at all to foresee a decline in the number of cases in the Northeast but at the same leisure see more cases developing in the West". Marshall said flu labour generally peaks in late January, but it's unclear if this year's early start means the flu also will culminate early. Other factors may be complicating the issue.

For instance, last year's ripen was relatively mild, which may have "magnified the perception that this year is more severe". Although this year "is a extent more severe outbreak than we've seen in the US for several years, so it's probably a combination of both things".

The flu this year isn't by definition causing more severe illness, at least not across the board. This year's H3N2 virus is mostly characterized by higher rates of illness in older population and correspondingly higher rates of hospital admissions and deaths. The FDA's Hamburg said, "Although the finish year's flu season was relatively mild, this season is turning out to be more severe. On the decided side, the vaccine is well matched this season to the circulating virus strains that are causing influenza".

The bottom frontier is that no one knows what kind of flu season this year is going to turn out to be. "Projection is very difficult," said Dr Kenneth Bromberg, chairman of pediatrics and superintendent of the Vaccine Research Center at Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City. "You have no sentiment what's prospering to happen" melatrol. treanor agreed. "If you've seen one flu season, you've seen one flu season".