THE NATION Demand goes up for flu medicines

The number of states hit hard by the flu now stands at 24.
DENVER (AP) -- Hours after Dave Stellick arrived on a flight from Atlanta, he was in a drugstore looking for cold and flu medication.
"I was sitting next to a guy on the plane that was sneezing and I was just thinking, 'I know I'm going to get sick in a week,"' said Stellick, 36, of Atlanta. "Too much traveling, too much flying sitting next to sick people."
Nyquil, Tylenol, Robitussin, Advil, Tamiflu: With the flu vaccine running out and the number of flu cases climbing, drugstores and online companies around the country are reporting brisk sales of over-the-counter remedies and prescription drugs in the past few weeks.
"I'd say this is the most severe year we've seen in quite a number of years," said Ken Chao, pharmacy director for the King Soopers grocery chain.
States hit hard
The number of states hit hard by the flu has doubled to 24 over the past week and now includes most of the western half of the country. Nationwide, at least 20 children have died in what could become the worst flu season in years.
Drugstore.com reported a 46 percent increase in sales of over-the-counter flu products in the past five weeks, compared with the same period of 2002, said Rasa Perhanian, who oversees such sales.
"Last week alone, I sold 50 percent more product than the week before," she said.
Walgreen Drug Stores and Wal-Mart reported a rise in sales of flu drugs in the past week, but gave no figures.
Among prescription drugs, demand has picked up for Tamiflu -- which can prevent or relieve the flu -- and for FluMist, a nasal version of the flu vaccine, according to the makers of the medicines. They gave no numbers.
Shortages
Some stores have reported intermittent shortages of certain products.
A test that doctors use to determine if a patient has the flu was also reported in short supply. Manufacturers of the rapid-diagnosis kits said they're straining to meet demand from hospitals and doctors' offices.
Cincinnati-based Meridian Bioscience Inc., said it's running about a week behind in filling orders for the kit. The test involves swabbing a patient's throat and exposing the sample to flu antibodies. If the antibodies attack the sample, a color or pattern shows up to indicate the person has the flu.
Baltimore-based BD Diagnostics Systems said it already has as many orders for the kits as the company had received for all of the last flu season. The flu season typically lasts about three months from late December into March, but started earlier this year.
"We are working around the clock right now, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Michael Meehan, president of BD Diagnostics Systems. "As fast as we can make them, they're being ordered and shipped. There's a lot of testing going on out there."
About two million flu tests are done across the country during a typical flu season, but that amount could be exceeded in this season, Meehan said.
Jake Mossman, owner of a Taos, N.M., pharmacy, said the number of inquiries he has had from customers needing advice on the flu has doubled in a two-day period.
"Over-the-counter and prescription volume has gone up tremendously in the same time frame, so I think there are people who are definitely ill," he said. "We haven't gotten to the point where we've run out of anything other than the prescription anti-virus."