Earlier this week, federal health officials announced they would release stores of influenza-fighting medication from the national stockpile in response to rising cases and some states not having enough medication on-hand.
Minnesota Department of Health officials say so far this flu season the state is doing okay on the amount of medication it has available.
“If we are starting to see shortages in the metro or in the northeast, what we would try to do first is switch the medicine within our system,” said MDH Healthcare Preparedness Manager Erin McLachlan. “If we couldn’t do that, statewide, then we would ask from the feds from the national stockpile.”
McLachlan said the state has far more of the generic medication oseltamivir on-hand than it does Tamiflu, which in a lot of states is not the case.
“They’re seeing shortages in that, and that’s been a problem as far as re-imbursement is concerned,” she said. “But here in Minnesota, we seem to have enough, and we seem to have it spread out across the state enough.”
Still, McLachlan and her colleagues remind everyone there is one way to help the situation overall.
“If enough people get a flu shot, that also helps with this shortage as well,” she said.
