Is there a Children's Tylenol shortage in West Virginia?

Posted: Dec 12, 2022 / 07:04 PM EST

Updated: Dec 12, 2022 / 07:04 PM EST

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — If you needed certain over-the-counter or prescription medications lately, you may have noticed that there is none in stock for some of them.

“Over the past couple months, we’ve been experiencing many shortages on some prescription medications,” Pharmacist Karl Sommer told 12 News.

It’s not just shortages for pharmacists like Sommer from Waterfront Family Pharmacy in Morgantown, but shelves across the country are seeing their stock of medications slowly disappear.

Some of the products that are seemingly vanishing to those that need it are Children’s Tylenol, certain brands of Ibuprofen, certain forms of Adderall and Ozempic, which is used for diabetes.

“It is impacting a lot of people,” Sommer said. “I mean we have some people that really don’t understand it. This is like a new thing to them that we don’t have whatever we want at our fingertips, but we try to explain that it is a nationwide problem and we’re doing the best we can to get the drug into their hands.”

This nationwide problem comes during the “tripledemic” season, where respiratory syncytial virus (RSV,) COVID-19 and the flu are all circulating. Increased cases of RSV is already putting families with young children on edge, but it could be even more worrisome if the shortage in medications prolongs..

“(The medications have) been back-ordered,” Sommer said. “They show up every once in a while. We’re able to get one or two a week, just trying to chip away at the list and get people their medication.”

When 12 News spoke on the phone with local pharmacies within Harrison, Marion and Monongalia County, they found that most of the ones we talked to faced a shortage on Children’s Tylenol.

With Children’s Tylenol sparse in some areas, Sommer offers some alternatives for parents to aid their younger children.