In advance of flu season and a potential new COVID-19 wave, critics and parents are urging action to be taken to solve an ongoing shortage of some children’s pain and fever drugs.
The government hasn’t done enough, according to federal Conservative health critic Michael Barrett, to assure enough supply of acetaminophen and ibuprofen-containing children’s drugs.
As was done with inhalers during the COVID-19 pandemic, he calls for Ottawa to use emergency measures that permit the importation of foreign pharmaceuticals that are compliant with Canadian laws.
The federal health minister stated Tuesday that Health Canada was “clearly worried” about supply concerns that have caused many parents to struggle for months to locate medications like children’s liquid Tylenol and Advil.
Insisting that “the issue is under relative control,” Minister Jean-Yves Duclos stated that his department has been in contact with producers, pharmacists, and provincial and territorial governments. He also advised Canadians against stockpiling medications.
However, many parents are concerned about what may happen if the issue is not resolved quickly. Calgary mother Tara Collins said that she had trouble finding medications when her sons became ill last month and that she is currently running low on her own supply.
Collins, a mother of three, expressed her anxiety, saying, “(I’m) really anxious knowing I won’t be able to locate the medicine my children will need to get through that cold, flu, or even if we have COVID again.”
Becca Travadi, a Calgary native, claimed that when her six-year-old kid became ill, she turned to non-medical therapies because she was unsure of what the upcoming fall and winter months would hold.
“I don’t know what you can do,” said Travadi, who anticipates more illnesses to spread in schools now that masks are largely off. “It’s terrible, like, I don’t know what you can do.”
It has reached the point that parents are becoming concerned.
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The Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto’s Mina Tadrous thinks there has to be more transparency and communication around supply chain concerns and deadlines.
But he asserts that turning to emergency imports, as Barrett recommended, is going too far.
Tadrous explains, “You can’t apply that for every medicine.”
“I realise that everyone is frustrated, but things are not that bad. Drugs are still there in the system, and we still have a tonne of other possibilities. Just not all of the shelves have it. In all likelihood, you don’t want to use all the levers to get this medicine.
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with documents from Ottawa’s Stephanie Taylor
The Canadian Press initially released this article on Oct.
5, 2022. .
Prior to Canada’s flu season, parents and critics demand that the lack of children’s pain medicine be resolved.
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