Demand for pink eye treatment medicine is high, many pharmacies in Nghe An are out of stock

Having had pink eye for 2 days, after being consulted, Ms. Trinh Thi Ba (My Ha hamlet, Hung Loc commune, Vinh city) went to pharmacies in the commune to buy medicine for treatment, but the staff all announced that they were "temporarily out of medicine". After that, she had to ask someone to go to the pharmacy business group to ask and buy 10 bottles of saline solution, 1 bottle of antibiotic eye drops for home treatment. However, the price of imported medicine, which was only 45-50,000 VND/bottle before, has now increased to 60,000 VND/bottle.

The entire family of Ms. Pham Quynh Anh, Nguyen Binh Khiem Street (Vinh City) suffered from pink eye. After being examined, the doctor prescribed her family 0.9% Sodium Chloride eye drops and antibiotic eye drops. However, after taking the prescription to 3 large pharmacies near Hung Dung Market, they still could not buy the medicine.

Ms. Quynh Anh said: “Currently, the drugstores reported that they were out of stock, only saline solution was left. At the same time, they advised me to switch to another type of antibiotic. Although it was not the medicine prescribed by the doctor, reading the ingredients and effects, I found them to be similar, so I temporarily took a bottle.”

According to records, many people are looking to buy a popular eye drop for treating pink eye, but many pharmacies have run out of stock due to the sudden demand in recent days.

Ms. Tran Tue An, an employee at a pharmacy on Nguyen Phong Sac Street, said: “This medicine has been out of stock for several days now. There are several other types of eye drops at the counter that are effective in treating pink eye, but because they are not the type prescribed by the doctor, many people refuse to buy them. In addition, there are also alternative pills, but these are only available by prescription.”

Not only in the city, currently, pharmacies in rural areas have also "run out of stock" of antibiotic eye drops. Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, pharmacist, owner of a pharmacy in Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen) said: "Usually, the store only imports 1 batch of this medicine to sell within 1 month, and only imports a new batch when it runs out. But for the past week, people's demand has increased, the medicine is out of stock, when calling the pharmacist to import a new batch, I was told that it is in short supply, and the price is also higher than before."

Although up to now, pink eye disease in Nghe An has not broken out into an epidemic or spread widely, the number of people infected with the disease has increased dramatically. Meanwhile, there is a lot of information about the outbreak in the southern provinces, the medicine to treat pink eye is scarce, so many families have the mentality of buying medicine in reserve, just in case. This has pushed up the demand for antibiotic eye drops to treat pink eye and temporarily "out of stock".

According to the recommendations of experts, people with pink eye can use saline (0.9% sodium chloride) or distilled water to wash their eyes. Eye drops containing antibiotics are only prescribed by doctors in cases where there are signs of suspected bacterial infection (pain, decreased vision, photophobia, etc.), to prevent infection after removing the pseudomembrane.

Currently on the market there are many types of eye drops containing antibiotics that can be used to treat pink eye... However, when treating pink eye, patients should consult a doctor, get examined and have a prescription as directed.