Cold Medicine Shortages Plague NorCal Amid RSV, Flu And COVID Surge

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Northern California residents sick with influenza, RSV or COVID-19 are having to contend with picked-over and empty medicine shelves in pharmacies this week, according to multiple reports.

Several Bay Area drug stores have reported shortages in fever reducers such as Motrin and Tylenol — a situation that is sounding the alarm statewide as emergency rooms across the state fill up to accommodate both children and adults sickened with respiratory viruses circulating. California — particularly Southern California — is experiencing an unusually bad flu and RSV season.

"It’s very hard to find a substitute for a fever reducer," UCLA Health pediatrician Anu Seshadri told LAist.

Johnson and Johnson, which manufactures Children's Tylenol, released a statement: "We are experiencing high consumer demand and are doing everything we can to make sure people have access to the products they need…We will continue to work with our retailers to provide Children’s TYLENOL® throughout the Cold & Flu Season."

"Target doesn't have it, go to CVS, don't have it. So, basically we're searching. Last resort is Amazon, but then, you got to wait a week sometimes," San Jose resident Glenn Valle told NBC Bay Area.

An Amazon search showed that there were only four boxes of Children's Tylenol left in stock on Monday afternoon.

Dr. Ted O’Connell of Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center told FOX KTVU2 that parents could ask pharmacists about the potential of using adult versions of Tylenol.

"There’s the possibility of talking with the pharmacist about doing the adult version of those medications and potentially being able to grind that up and put it into a liquid or something like applesauce," he told the station.

For children dealing with symptoms other than fever, O'Connell doctor suggested natural remedies such as using steam from a shower, honey to coat a sore throat or warm bath to ease muscle aches.

There have also been reported shortages of the antibiotic amoxicillin and the antiviral Tamiflu across the U.S. as the nation faces a dreaded "tridemic," a concerning expansion of last year's "twindemic."

Cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a fairly common illness that can cause breathing difficulties in young children, are uncharacteristically high in California for this time of year, straining capacity in hospitals statewide.

To date, two children under 5 years old have died from RSV in California. The state's second pediatric RSV death of the season occurred in Riverside County, according to the county's health department.

Ten deaths related to influenza have been reported since October, the California Department of Public Health reported.

READ MORE: 2 Children Under 5 Die From RSV As Severe Cold And Flu Season Slams CA

In California, hospital bed occupancy was running at nearly 83 percent full-capacity as of Thursday, according to the Department of Health and Human Services data. The tracker is updated daily at 1 p.m. EST.

"R.S.V. has just surged: We keep thinking it’s peaked, but then it keeps on going up," Dr. Tami Hendriksz, a pediatrician and the dean of Touro University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, told the New York Times last week. "We still haven’t seen the top of this peak yet."

In Central California, a major surge in patients suffering from the three circulating viruses has forced hospitals to limit emergency medical services last week, ABC30 reported.

"What we're seeing across the four counties, most of the hospitals are working at disaster levels with very high capacity issues within their facilities," Fresno County EMS Director Dan Lynch said.

Across Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties, an "assess and refer" policy was triggered. Counties are urging residents to avoid calling an ambulance or going to the emergency room unless they are experiencing a life or limb-threatening emergency. If a call is made, first responders will have the authority to decide whether a patient is transported.

READ MORE: 'Tridemic' Surge Strains ERs, Some Ambulances Told To Limit Services

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that California is experiencing "very high" influenza levels.

“We’re seeing the highest influenza hospitalization rates going back a decade,” Dr. José Romero, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a news briefing Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

What's more, Orange County extended its emergency declaration to help the Children's Hospital of Orange County cope with an ongoing flood of young patients afflicted with upper respiratory viruses.

The children's hospital is so packed that hospital staff set up beds wherever there was space last week, CHOC's chief medical officer, Dr. Sandip Godambe said. Hospital beds are being set up in discharge lounges, an oncology playroom gym and surgical playrooms, he said.

"Every children’s hospital that I’m aware of is absolutely swamped," Dr. Coleen Cunningham, the pediatrician in chief at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, told the New York Times. “This is our March 2020."

As for COVID-19, the state was reporting a 10.8 percent testing positivity on Dec. 1.

City News Service contributed to this report.