This “tripledemic” of flu, COVID, and RSV is leading to shortages of drugs used to treat other conditions—perhaps needlessly, in some cases.
Some formulations of the go-to antibiotic amoxicillin are hard to come by this fall in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe, with recent shortages also reported in Ireland, Malaysia, Romania, and Australia. While antibiotics treat bacterial infections, some clinicians prescribe them anyway for patients with viral illnesses, a slew of which are surging in North America and globally this fall. That could mean amoxicillin isn’t always available to those who truly need it, like children with ear and sinus infections or bacterial pneumonia, experts say.
