Thermometer sales shoot up

Pharmacies across Shropshire and Mid Wales are running out of thermometers as swine flu sweeps the nation.

Some pharmacies which were previously selling one a month are now struggling to keep up with demand.

One of the main symptoms of the illness is a soaring temperature and callers to the new national helpline are required to give temperature readings.

Lloyds Pharmacy has seen sales shoot up across its nine stores in Wellington, Telford, Ironbridge, Dawley, Shrewsbury, Ludlow and Donnington, but said staff were keeping up with demand.

Some chemists have reported completely running out.

Pharmacist Tim Hazelwood, of Woodside Pharmacy in Telford, said the new national helpline required callers to have a temperature reading.

He said: "It is surprising how many people don't have a thermometer.

"We are ordering more and selling more than usual."

Martin Lunt, of Lunts Pharmacy, Roushill, Shrewsbury, said: "Normally we would sell one a month, but now we are selling half a dozen a day."

Boots, in Church Street, Oswestry, has sold out of thermometers and seen an increase in sales of batteries for electrical thermometers.

Rita Gough, a dispenser at Boots, Bull Ring, Ludlow, said: "We have not got any thermometers and we can't get hold of any more.

"People are going bonkers and panicking about swine flu."