Canada’s public health agency has said that foreign shipments of children’s fever medication will help ease a nationwide shortage that has left families desperate and hospitals overwhelmed.
“We are announcing that we have secured foreign supply of children’s acetaminophen that will be available for sale at retail and in community pharmacies in the coming weeks,” Health Canada said in a release on Monday.
For months, parents seeking relief for fevers in young children have found empty shelves in pharmacies across the country. Some have been forced to plead to friends and relatives outside Canada for help, while others have organized trips to the United States for the medicine. In recent weeks, a lack of over-the-counter fever medication has overwhelmed paediatric health units.
The country’s federal health minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, said the expected shipments will “fill the drugstore counters pretty quickly” and that more deliveries were expected in the coming months.
Despite the expected shipments, Health Canada asked families to “only buy what they need” so that others can access the sparse supply.
For months, acetaminophen and ibuprofen for young children have been in short supply as the country battles coinciding waves of coronavirus, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, all of which produce fevers in young children.
The public health agency blamed “unprecedented demand since the summer” for the shortage, as well as supply chain issues, an unusually large surge in RSV cases and hoarding.
Health Canada says all of the incoming medication was reviewed and carefully found to be safe. All information on dosing, ingredients and cautions and warnings will be made available in both English and French.
Health Canada had previously waived bilingual labelling rules in order to import tens of thousands of doses from the United States and Australia for use in hospitals across the country. In Canada, all products are required to have labels in French and English – a rule that while seemingly cumbersome, ensures parents are able to fully understand safe dosage levels for young children.
“At this time, Canadians should buy only what they need, so that other parents and caregivers can access medication so we can meet the needs of sick children,” said the public health agency.
The New Democratic party said on Monday that Canada needed to create its own, government-run drug manufacture as a way of making the country less reliant on fragile supply chains and foreign experts.
“I don’t think there are any issues more important to Canadians than the health of their children,” NDP health critic Don Davies told reporters. “When their ability to respond to their children’s pain and their illness is compromised, I think that’s a crisis of the highest order.”
