Pharmacies across the UK and France are running out of a key antibiotic as doctors see a post-pandemic rebound in winter infections such as strep throat. In Britain, the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies has called the shortage of amoxicillin “very worrying” as the country experiences a surge in scarlet fever and serious Strep A infections that has already killed nine children.
Health professionals are also warning of potential shortages in other European countries such as Italy, as well as in Canada and the United States. In France, the government has acknowledged that supplies were tight for both amoxicillin and common painkiller paracetamol, but that patients were still able to find what they were being prescribed.
Emma, a mother of two in Lyon, says she trekked to six different pharmacies in late November before she could find amoxicillin to clear up her three-year-old son’s ear infection. “I found the amoxicillin in the sixth pharmacy and it was the last packet,” she told Euronews Next. “In each one, they said they could try to order it but it wouldn’t arrive until a week later”.
She also struggled to find the liquid form of paracetamol, which is usually sold over the counter, for her three-month-old daughter who had bronchiolitis. “It was a really stressful experience. When your child is ill, all you want to do is make them feel better,” she said.
The phenomenon is not new, but it has worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. “The situation has been very bad over the years in all countries, and affecting all types of medicines,” said Ilaria Passarani, Secretary General of the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) representing community pharmacists. “For the past seven, eight years, we have seen the problem increase,” she told Euronews Next, adding there were fundamental causes driving this trend as well as more circumstantial ones. (SOURCE)
