Ontario parents say they're now travelling to the U.S. in search of children's medication
A Canada-wide shortage of children's medication, amid a surge of respiratory infections, has forced some Ontario parents to head south of the border in search of solutions.
At Meds, a pharmacy in Etobicoke, Ont., compound pharmacist Dave Hughes told CTV News Toronto they’re seeing an average of five to 20 excess sick children a day.
“There’s a lineup forming most nights where people are asking questions about one medication or another,” he told CTV News Toronto Thursday. “There is some urgency to a lot of cases.”
Two families said in interviews they plan to travel or had travelled to Buffalo, N.Y., in search of relief for their children.
“My granddaughter had a lung infection, and the doctor said to give her Tylenol,” a woman, Savem, told CTV News Toronto. "She had a really bad headache and cough, but you don’t find Tylenol, you don’t find anything, so this Saturday, I’m going to Buffalo."
Evelyn, a mother who spoke to CTV News Toronto, who said she was previously only able to find a small amount of infant Tylenol in Toronto, said she had recently travelled to Buffalo in search of medication.
“It’s been so difficult,” she said. “I recently went to a Shoppers but all they had was infant Tylenol and only a small amount and they wanted a prescription from a doctor to get it.”
“I decided on my own terms to go to the States, to Buffalo, and they had a few bottles left.”
She purchased only one of the bottles and drove back to Ontario, she said.
Health Canada is blaming the shortage of analgesics, or pain relief medication, on unprecedented demand, while many pharmacists say there's been a supply shortage for months.
Toronto pharmacist Amir Khela says supply has been dwindling for months.
“It’s been gone for what? Three months now?” he said. “It’s definitely a supply problem.”
This week, federal Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos said the shortage of medication was due to a rising wave of respiratory illnesses.
“Demand for analgesics has soared,” Duclos said. “We now understand really well that this is driven by the severe viruses that are impacting our children across Canada.”
Officials also point to the spike in children admissions at hospitals. Locally, at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, emergency room wait times are up 12 hours on average. In the hospital's general medicine unit, occupancy rates have hit 133 per cent.
In Ottawa, CHEO, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ottawa, recently had to open a second pediatric care unit.
In the meantime, Health Canada said manufacturers are increasing production, with some producing “at record levels.”
It said it recently approved the “exceptional” importation of ibuprofen from the United States, and is working on doing the same for acetaminophen from Australia, to supply hospitals.
Health Canada is also working on doing the same for community pharmacies and consumers, it adds, although the agency did not provide a timeline for when that would happen.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Heidi Petracik
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.