KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Before Aisha Kelley headed to the pharmacy last week, she heard from a fellow lupus patient that she might have trouble getting her prescription filled.
Her medication, hydroxychloroquine, sold by the brand name Plaquenil, keeps her body from turning against her. It is considered the most important drug for lupus patients, but now is also being investigated as a possible treatment for the new coronavirus.
Before Plaquenil, Kelley's children had to help her shower and dress because the autoimmune disease made her legs wobbly like Jell-O.
Before Plaquenil, sitting on the sofa exhausted her.
Before Plaquenil, her thick, shiny hair fell out in clumps.
At the Price Chopper pharmacy in Mission, Kan., the pharmacist told her she could only have a 10-day supply, not her usual 30-day.
"Well, do you know when you're going to get it?" Kelley asked him.
He couldn't tell her.
Pharmacies across the country have run out of the medication used by millions of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis patients, a drug many of them have taken daily for years.
Hydroxychloroquine started selling out after President Donald Trump touted it as a possible "game changer" treatment for the coronavirus. A French study released this month suggested that the drug, along with the antibiotic azithromycin, could be effective in treating COVID-19 patients.
Now supplies have dried up. And some patients are considering rationing their daily dosages, or skipping some days altogether, as health advocates and physicians caution them not to panic.
"My fear is I will be put in the hospital, and I don't want to go into the hospital," said Misty Helm, a 48-year-old lupus patient in Lexington, Mo.
She was diagnosed in 2004 after years of trying to keep weight on her body and watching her hands and feet swell up like sausages as she worked 22 years in the automotive industry, including a decade at Ford's Claycomo plant in Kansas City.
"It's not a fun disease," she said.
Reports have surfaced that people are stockpiling the drug. Now Missouri pharmacy officials have cautioned health care providers to stop prescribing the drug for a use it's not approved for.
Pharmacy boards across the country have reported that doctors are hoarding the drugs by writing prescriptions for themselves and family members, The Associated Press reported.
Several states, including Kentucky, Ohio, Nevada, Texas, and now Missouri, have issued restrictions or guidelines on how the drugs should be prescribed.
"Prescribing hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine and azithromycin for family, friends and co-workers in anticipation of a COVID-19 related illness can significantly impact drug supplies and may lead to improper use," said a joint statement last week from the Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts, and the Missouri Board of Pharmacy.
Because people scooped it up to use for coronavirus, Kelley now has enough of the little white pills _ including ones she hasn't taken yet from her last refill _ to last her for about two weeks.
"I'm nervous. I'm not going to lie," Kelley said.
