Severe Shortage Of Cold Medicines In UK Amidst Influenza Spike

UK is facing a serious shortage of medicines amidst the spread of influenza and COVID-19

Influenza has become one of the most viral diseases recently and it has spread especially in the United Kingdom. Amidst the spread of Influenza and COVID-19, health officials of UK state that they are also suffering from a severe shortage of medicines meant to cure cold. According to reports the reason for this acute shortage is the ministers lack of panning. Apparently, the government was in denial of the worsening of the medicine supply chain. Pharmacists of the country say that they had reported about the shortages especially for common cold and flu. The medicines that have been affected are throat lozenges, cough mixtures and some painkillers, as per the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies.

“Pharmacists are struggling to obtain the very basic, most common cold and flu medicine,” said the chief executive Leyla Hannbeck told the PA news agency, as per reports. “This isn’t just the branded medicines, it is also simple things like throat lozenges, cough mixtures or painkillers particularly the ones that are soluble themselves and making sure that they use the relevant products to manage the symptoms. “And that has led to a shortage of these products in terms of us not being able to obtain them.”

Flu And COVID-19 Continue To Spread

The officials of UK for example, the Health Security Agency has issued a serious warning regarding the continuous spread of COVID-19 and influenza in the country. According to reports, they are spreading at “high levels.” Officials urge that children who are experiencing fever should not be allowed to go to school. Adults who are unwell are also to use face masks all the time in order to stem the spread of infections. But, unfortunately there has been a serious lack of planning by officials about foreseeing the problems that could arise and also planning ahead to solve the issues. Officials also noted that they obviously knew that there will be a very high demand for medicines as soon the there were reports of the rise in influenza as well as COVID. So, ideally the plans should have been in place in terms of managing this with regards to liaising with manufacturers and getting the products in on time. Not being able to access self-care products in pharmacies is leading to more pressure for the NHS.