By Katherine Tinsley
10:11am PST, Jan 10, 2025
Due to the high demand, Chinese pharmacies raised the price of Xofluza — an antiviral medicine with the main ingredient Baloxavir marboxil.
"It's out of stock. Baloxavir marboxil, it's sold out this morning," a pharmacy employee told Qilu Evening Post. "We have to wait for restock tomorrow. We are selling them at 227 yuan (about $30 USD)."
The medicine "helps protect you and your family members aged 5 years and older from getting the flu," the pharmaceutical item says on its official site. "XOFLUZA may help lower your chances of getting the flu by 87 percent after being exposed to someone who has the flu, compared with placebo."
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HMPV, which was first discovered in the Netherlands in 2001, spreads through direct contact with an infected person or contaminated surface. Due to the condition being droplet-born, it can spread rapidly.
According to Daily Star, a pharmacy worker in Zhengzhou city told a Chinese outlet: "Tamiflu used to be the go-to medicine but this Xofluza is imported goods so it's not cheap. We are selling it around 200 yuan ($27 USD), we see a lot of people asking for this medication recently. Some of them said they traveled far to look for this."
HMPV's most common symptoms are: cough, fever, nasal congestion and shortness of breath.
Currently, there is no vaccine available for HMPV and no formal treatment for it, leading many Chinese citizens to depend on Xofluza, sanitization and masking to protect themselves.
China was greatly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, as the first case of the virus was detected in Wuhan. However, even though HMPV diagnoses are increasing, there has been a decline in respiratory infections in the country.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) said data from China shows "there has been a recent rise in acute respiratory infections," but "the overall scale and intensity of respiratory infectious diseases in China this year are lower than last year."
