Flu update

NM activity at elevated levels while some shortages of prescription cough medicine reported

Prescription cough medicine was in short supply at some Walgreen pharmacies this week, but doctors report no shortage of colds and viral illnesses.

Flu activity has diminished since late December but remains at elevated levels throughout the state, a New Mexico Department of Health official said.

“There is still plenty of flu around,” said Dr. Joan Baumbach, deputy state epidemiologist.

There’s also a growing number of cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a potentially dangerous illness that attacks the lungs, said Dr. Randall Knott, a pediatrician at University of New Mexico Hospital.

“We’re still seeing good amounts of flu, but it is definitely lessening,” Knott said. “In its place is the dreaded RSV, which we are starting to see in abundance.”

RSV typically causes cold-like symptoms in healthy people, but can cause serious illness in infants and older adults, leading to pneumonia or bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the lung’s small airways, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Infants are particularly vulnerable to RSV because their air passages are so small, Knott said.

“We’ve had a lot of very young babies go to the intensive care unit in the last couple of weeks,”

he said.

Doctors have few treatments for RSV, which typically peaks in February, Knott said. “It’s just a miserable virus that needs to run its course.”

On the prescription cough syrup front, a spokesman for Walgreen Co. said “a manufacturer shortage, and heightened cough and cold activity” has resulted in a shortage of cough syrup at some pharmacies.

“We are working closely with distribution partners, suppliers and prescribers to help meet consumer demand through offering or prescribing alternatives to treat cough and cold,” Walgreen Co. spokesman Phil Caruso said.

A spokeswoman for CVS Pharmacy said the chain has not experienced widespread shortages, “but there could be sporadic shortages based on demand.”

Presbyterian Healthcare Services reported no shortage of prescription cough syrup on Friday.