People sick with the flu struggling to find Tamiflu

AUBURN, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) - With flu season beginning to rear its ugly head, people are running into a major issue: a shortage in Tamiflu.

DeKalb County Health Officer, Dr. Mark Souder, says Tamiflu can make a big difference in how people feel when they have the flu.

“Anytime we face a lower viral or bacterial load, at the time of the illness or during the illness, we’ll have fewer symptoms,” Dr. Souder said.

Dr. Souder says even though Tamiflu doesn’t kill the virus, it slows it down. He says Tamiflu is in short supply right now, because people in the medical world didn’t anticipate this large of an increase in cases so soon.

As the pandemic eased, fewer people wore masks and more people ventured out into public. Dr. Souder says our immune systems need to get stronger.

“There is a giant increase in cases, apparently ten-fold in Arizona, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan in particular,” Dr. Souder said. “Maybe as much as 14-fold or 15-fold in some other areas of the country.”

Dr. Souder says it’s important for people to understand just how dangerous the flu can be for some.

“We all thought it was going to be worse, I would think double, maybe triple,” Dr. Souder said. “But when you go to this number, we’re not going to have enough medicine on any circumstance, it’s not going to be available.”

Dr. Souder says folks should anticipate some difficulty getting Tamiflu for at least a few more weeks.

“The Tamiflu shortage is here to stay, it’s not going to get fixed up very fast at all,” Dr. Souder said.

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