Children's antibiotics, some adult medications now caught in GTA drug shortages
Facing a wave of parents desperate for children’s medications, pharmacists are rationing some drugs in short supply and trying novel mixing methods to supply others as more medications appear to be caught in a nationwide shortage.
This has some pharmacists calling for increased masking to reduce the wave of influenza, RSV and COVID-19 currently swamping paediatric emergency rooms and prompting others to call for a permanent solution of creating a Canadian supply of some drugs through new manufacturing.
“Many of the parents are quite desperate,” pharmacist John Girgis of Apple-Hills Medical Pharmacy in Mississauga told CTV News Toronto. “I had a mother this morning with an infant and a toddler – both had slight fevers – and she was just desperate, in tears.”
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
Girgis said he still has supplies of children’s painkillers but due to the demand he is rationing supplies at one box per family.
Pharmacist Kyro Maseh of Lawlor Pharmasave in Toronto said the main challenge he’s facing is a a shortage of two antibiotics – amoxicillin and azithromycin.
“The paediatric formulations are on backorder,” he said. “For us to compound these two is something that most pharmacists have never done before and we’ve never needed to.”
“Our hands are tied. They are difficult to manipulate. The dosing is extremely delicate when we are dosing a child, especially kids under two,” Maseh said.
Maseh called for increased masking in order to slow the spread of infections that are already putting children’s emergency rooms under strain.
“We need to take more active measures to prevent infections. Masking is crucial, especially in schools and in any setting where there are kids at this point. If we’re able to decrease the infection just a little bit so we can slow down the situation, I’ll take it,” he said.
Hundreds of medications across the country are either running low or entirely depleted, including children’s painkillers, cough and cold medication – and now, antibiotics.
Health Canada said it has sourced a foreign supply of children’s acetaminophen and will distribute them to pharmacists soon.
But that is only a small part of the problem, Jen Belcher of the Ontario Pharmacists Association said.
“We’ve been having to work with parents and prescribers using adult products and adapting them for children’s use. Or switching to alternative antibiotics,” she said.
“It’s definitely a concern if we can’t use the appropriate antibiotics,” she said, warning that could lead to longer term problems like antibiotic resistance.
Canada should not be in a position where it is relying on outside sources for essential medications, Maseh said.
“I think moving forward Canada should be manufacturing these at home in excess so that if we get a spike like this we’re able to deal with it better,” he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.