Fear of H1N1 spreads, creating shortages of gels, face masks

Hand-sanitizer sales rose 177 percent in September.

McClatchy Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Teresa Edwards has Purell dispensers positioned all through her house in Overland Park, Kan. She makes her two young sons slather on the gel whenever they get home from school.

She would have made them wear the face masks she bought, if the things had fit properly. Now she’s shopping for child-size versions.

“I was and I still am freaked out by swine flu,” Edwards said.

So are millions of other worried people.

They’re buying up face masks and sanitizing hand gels, hoping to stave off the H1N1 flu virus.

Demand from consumers and health-care providers is creating nationwide shortages of these products and raising concerns that people may be putting too much faith in some flu countermeasures.

The Food and Drug Administration recently warned consumers to use extreme care when buying any products online that claim to prevent or treat swine flu.

“I think a lot of people want to feel like they’re doing something to protect their family and themselves. It may give them a false sense of security,” said Shawn Mueller, infection-prevention and control manager at University of Kansas Hospital.

She recommends such basic measures as covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands frequently and staying home when you’re ill.

Hand sanitizers are a good bet, Mueller said. They can kill flu viruses and make a good substitute for hand washing.

But the kinds of masks often used by the general public are only effective at stopping the sneezes of someone who is already sick. They are unlikely to keep people wearing them from catching the flu, she said.

“A normal, walking-around human doesn’t need one,” Mueller said.

Effective or not, swine-flu avoidance measures have spread as rapidly as the virus.

Drugstores have moved their mask displays to prominent end-of-the-aisle positions.

Discount stores such as Target are advertising masks and hand sanitizers among their “flu essentials.”

Hospitals are placing hand-gel dispensers in their lobbies for visitors who come to see vulnerable patients. Doctors are handing out masks in waiting rooms.

The U.S. Army has even started issuing hand gel to new recruits in basic training, olive-drab bottles that fit neatly into a shoulder pocket.

Edwards’ younger son, Anthony, 6, has asthma and allergies that make him vulnerable to flu and other respiratory infections.

“Any little virus he gets turns into pneumonia overnight,” she said.

So Anthony and his older brother, Jeramieh, 9, are getting a lot of experience with hand-gel dispensers.

Edwards went shopping for masks after eight of Jeramieh’s classmates were out sick recently.

“If he picks up anything, he’ll bring it home to Anthony. It’s too much of a risk,” she said.

Hand-sanitizer sales have been tracking upward along with the nation’s growing anxiety about swine flu.

People bought more than $129 million worth in the year ending Oct. 4. That is 29 percent more than the year before, according to Information Resources Inc., a Chicago market research firm that follows most mass merchandise outlets, except Wal-Mart.

Recently, sales have skyrocketed. In September alone, spending on hand sanitizers was 177 percent higher than a year earlier.

That is putting a strain on supply.