July 19, 2021
Rush to get RSV medicine into country
Pharmac is working to bring in extra supplies of a critical medicine used to treat Respiratory syncytial virus, which is affecting large numbers of babies and young children.
Operations director Lisa Williams says average monthly demand for the steroid prednisolone in oral liquid form is about 8500 bottles, but in June that spiked to 15,500, sending New Zealand’s supply of the medicine critically low.
She says children hospitalised with RSV have access to alternative treatments, but there was concern it was not getting through to children in the community.
Māori GP Rawiri Jansen says primary care centres and hospitals are seeing increasing numbers of cases.
"The thing that worries me most is our emergency departments with kids are quite full, so it's a really busy time for them, but I'm not going to change the basic message – if you're worried about baby breathing, then get baby checked," Dr Jansen says.
Existing stocks of Prednisolone have been released to pharmacies, and Pharmac is says the next order is due in the country before the end of the month.
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