The 19 new child deaths that happened last week is the biggest single-week figure since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic began.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said today at a news conference that the child death toll in the U. S. pandemic has now reached 114 and is expected to rise even further.

He informed that the remaining 234,000 courses of Tamiflu liquid have been released from the national stockpile and will be distributed to states according to population.

Another 300,000 courses of the pediatric formulation of the potent flu-fighting drug were released last month by the CDC.

Most areas have child-size Tamiflu capsules available although the liquid-tamiflu is in short supply in areas that are hard-hit by the flu.

Apart from this several large-chain pharmacies are letting their pharmacists mix up new batches of liquid Tamiflu from adult-size capsules of the flu drug.

Frieden has warned parents against trying this at home. There is another equally influential drug, Relenza, which is amply available but it can only be taken by children aged 7 and above. In addition to this they should not be suffering from any respiratory disease such as asthma.

New doses of pediatric liquid formulation of Tamiflu will be purchased for the national stockpile early next year.

The main problem is not the availability of these antiviral drugs but the scarce number of people who should take them seeking medical care.