Thursday 24 November 2022 05:20 AM Doctor warns that DOUBLE number of sick children are attending his NYC ... trends now

The head of pediatrics at a respected children's hospital has called attention to a marked uptick in admissions due to a shortage of key medications used to treat childhood ailments.

Worsening matters, Dr. James Schneider of the Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York said, is the fact that years of Covid lockdowns and restrictions have robbed youngsters of vital exposure to germs that would strengthen their immune system. 

Schneider and other doctors have said the return to normalcy post-pandemic is leading to a rebound of viral and bacterial infections that has far surpassed numbers recorded before the pandemic.

Schneider, chief of pediatric intensive care at the Queens hospital, said this phenomenon has roughly doubled the number of kids in his emergency room.

Pre-Covid, the pediatrician told The New York Times Wednesday, the ER would admit about 170 children a day during this time of year. That number, he revealed, has since burgeoned to somewhere between 260 and 300 kids daily.

Experts have since coined the terms 'tripledemic' and 'Tri-demic' to classify the sudden influx of sickness, referencing the primary ailments plaguing America's young - RSV, the seasonal flu, and the still lingering coronavirus.

It comes as many medical professionals had warned since 2020 that these viruses could make a deadly comeback after a lull during the pandemic, as seasonal bugs come back with a vengeance after being suppressed during COVID lockdowns.

Experts at the time also warned of more severe effects from these maladies - especially within children - in a population with a significantly weakened immunity.

'Right now, the demand related to treatment for viral infections for children is at levels I haven't seen in my career,' Dr. Schneider told the paper in an interview Wednesday.

 He added that after two years of seeing markedly less of respiratory viruses such as the flu and RSV - which he said are 'the things that keep me busy' in the Winter - hospitals are now seeing their return, in historic numbers.

'It's not new disease, we're just seeing more than the typical amount, and the surge is earlier than normal,' Schneider explained.

He added that despite a recent regression in cases, there has also been a slight uptick in the number of kids testing positive for Covid, further hampering his and other teams' efforts.

Luckily, the doctor said, the hospital, part of the sprawling Northwell Health system, has managed to secure the necessary supplies of medications to treat these maladies.

However, that is not the case at hundreds of pharmacies and now hospitals across the country, as simultaneous shortages of four key antibiotics and respiratory drugs for children have led to nationwide rise in hospitalizations.

Most are allicted the debilitating respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and many others with influenza.

Schneider said that many are breathing rapidly, using their stomachs to frantically suck in air, a sign of respiratory distress associated with those illnesses.

Some are lethargic, showing signs of dehydration, while others as young as just a few months have had to be fitted with masks to provide them with extra oxygen. 

What's more, in addition to shortages of some of the world's most widely used antibiotics - including amoxicillin, a vital antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections such as pneumonia, respiratory infections and strep throat - pharmacies across the US have reported that kids' Tylenol too has become scarce.

The pain reliever is one of the most popular drugs in the country, and is used to quell youngsters' fevers.

Pharmacy workers in states such as New York, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia have since seen their store stock of these drugs dwindle, with photos showing barren shelves where the drug should be.

Now, these shortages have spread to area hospitals, 

'Primary care physicians are really overwhelmed with the amount of prescriptions that they're using to treat our children,' said Children's National Hospital VP Chief Pharmacy officer Dr. Eric Balmir.

'Parents shouldn't worry. There are alternative medicines available and your child will still be treated appropriately for their ailment.'

According to pediatricians, many of the shortages are prescription-only antibiotics like Augmentin - a antibiotic drug that uses amoxicillin alongside clavulanic acid - and Tamiflu, the most commonly used flu medication in US hospitals, over the counter drugs have also been affected,

'Although we are starting to see some shortages in fever reducer medicines, like acetaminophen, which is Tylenol and ibuprofen, which is Motrin, and Advil,' Annapolis-based pediatrician Dr. Christina Johns said.

Desperate parents, meanwhile, have reported spending hours going from pharmacy-to-pharmacy to track down the drugs for their children. 

Montgomery County Executive Mark Elrich blames the crisis on what he calls the 'Tri-demic' of COVID-19, RSV, and the flu.

'The hospitals are really concerned about capacity levels and we have three things out there that can put people in the hospitals,' Elrich said.

The cause, according to doctors WUSA9 talked to: Drug manufacturers base orders on forecasts from earlier in the year, which did not predict a spike in RSV. 

Children infected with viruses may later need antibiotics because of secondary infections.

Dr Stuart Fischer, an emergency care physician in New York, told DailyMail.com: 'Needless to say, a good supply [of medicines] was needed for this winter, but our Government doesn't believe in planning ahead.'

He added: 'You could say we are obsessed with Covid in the US, while every other illness is being pushed to the side.' 

Dr Scott Roberts, an infectious diseases expert at Yale University, said: 'We should have stockpiled ahead, especially for bread and butter antibiotics for pneumonia [such as amoxicillin].'

'I would have hoped that we would have predicted a bad flu season and would have prepared for this from a supply chain perspective.'

And Dr William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, added to DailyMail.com: 'The sorts of second order shortages you describe have been a recurring theme.

'Back in 2020 it was tests, or even swabs that ran low. Then masks. Now we are seeing this. It is certainly true that we could expect a need for antibiotics.'

Defending the supply issues yesterday, the White House's Covid co-ordinator Dr Ashish Jha told a briefing there were 'often' antibiotic shortages at this time of year. 'We still have a good amount of Covid,' he added, 'the single-most important thing people need to do is go get vaccinated.'