Great Britain: children victims of antibiotic shortage

Britons are facing penicillin shortages that last until the end of December amid a Strep A outbreak. Parents are scrambling to find medicine for the infectious disease that has killed seven children so far. Britain is running out of antibiotics as the country faces an outbreak of strep A that has killed seven children so far. Three drugs commonly used to combat the disease – or telltale symptoms that could be caused by other bacterial infections – are listed as being in short supply. Pharmacists told Mai lOnline that the ongoing shortages, which could rumble on until 2023, were “heartbreaking.” Parents scrambling to find medicine are being turned away because of a lack of supplies, they said.

This comes as general practitioners have been told to be ready to prescribe antibiotics to young people with the slightest symptoms of strep A as part of a campaign to catch the disease early – when it is most treatable. Parents mourning the death of a child due to the outbreak believe their offspring could have lived if doctors had given them medication earlier. However, No. 10 Downing Street urged parents to be on the lookout for any sign of infection, which is usually harmless. He stressed that the British health system (NHS) is “well prepared” for such situations. No. 10 Downing Street also claimed that there was no shortage of amoxicillin – one of three drugs currently facing supply problems.

Bosses at the UK’s Health Safety Agency have urged GPs to “lower the threshold” for prescribing antibiotics to children with suspected Strep A infection. Under-18s who become ill should receive phenoxymethylpenicillin or penicillin V according to NHS guidelines. But stocks of a type of this medication, manufactured by the Company Accord, are exhausted, according to Mims, an online monitoring tool used by health professionals. Dr.  Hannbeck, director general of the association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, recognized during her interview with the Mailonline website that the shortage was real and that the comments of Downing Street were contrary to reality.

She added that pharmacists on the ground should refuse parents prescribed antibiotic doses for their children while parents looking for drugs also signal shortages. Dr. Hannbeck said pharmacists had raised the question of reducing drug stocks with the Ministry of Health “for months”, adding that these warnings had fallen into the ears of a deaf. She noted that there was not a single problem behind the shortage, listing the supply chain problems, fueled by covid restrictions in China, where many drugs are manufactured.

In turn, the increase in fuel and energy costs has something to do with it, in particular by affecting the distribution and manufacturing of drugs, according to the Director General of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies. Until now this year, there have been 2.3 cases of group A streptococcus (SGA) Invasive in 100,000 children aged one to four years, more quadruple of the average of 0.5 each season before the pandemic.

The energy crisis pushes Germany to new crises. This time, it’s hospitals to be affected.

Energy and inflation costs place German hospitals in a difficult position. The government’s support program arrived too late, according to the association of German hospitals According to statistics from this association, a hospital spends an average of 6 million euros per year to pay electricity and natural gas. The responsible for the hospital unit, Torsten Dimmerlinck, says that because of the poor insulation of the building walls, the energy costs are very high. The long -term contract of the hospital with a local gas company expires at the end of the year and the price of the renewal of the contract will be increased tenfold. “Most of the budget is used to cover electricity and gas costs. Fortunately, we found another regional energy supplier. The prices he has offered to us since January are a third of other providers’ prices, “he said.

To financially support hospitals, the German government has approved a assistance plan of 8 billion euros, so that they are able to respond to the increase in energy costs and the rise in prices due to inflation . Gerald Gass, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of German Hospitals, believes that the support measures arrived too late and that they only protect in the short term that certain hospitals in bankruptcy. He adds that more than 90 % of German hospitals are heated with natural gas and that 60 % of them depend completely on natural gas in winter: “The prices outburst exerts unbearable pressure on hospitals, which are currently in a situation difficult financial because we theoretically fight with higher costs from early 2022. ” To counter the effects of the outbreak of energy costs, some hospitals turn to biogas to meet their needs. Regional energy suppliers warn, however, that the costs of this alternative energy source should also increase next year.

In France, cyber attacks are added to strikes and disputes to worsen the current crisis.

Since Saturday evening, a cyber attack has disrupted the activity of the Versailles hospital center for Saturday evening, located in Chesnay-Rocquencourt (Yvelines). The reception of patients is therefore “limited”, said the hospital, adding that the computer system had been cut and an open crisis cell. The cyber attack which targets the entire establishment, including the André-Mignot hospital, the retirement home Despagne and the Richaud hospital in Versailles, is added to this targeting, at the end of August, the South Ile-de-France hospital center (CHSF) of Corbeil-Essonnes. The hospital center which employs 3,000 caregivers and normally welcomes some 700 patients, cut its computer system and reduces the entrance to the patients, said its management.

According to the Regional Health Agency (ARS), the André Mignot Hospital triggered its white plan, partially deprogrammed the activities of the operating room and makes every effort to maintain ambulatory care and consultations. Personnel was also mobilized in the resuscitation or continuous care services and equipment has been brought in reinforcement when the attack is not yet circumscribed, explained the Minister of Health François Braun on Sunday evening, after a visit to the establishment. “Care machines” work but not their “networking”, “so it takes more people to monitor patients in resuscitation service, you need a person in front of each room to monitor the screens,” said Mr. Braun .

The hospital, which has already been the target of attacks in the last months but foiled, “put itself in data protection mode”, continued the minister. Since Saturday evening, there have already been six patient transfers “,” the heaviest “(three from the resuscitation service and three of that of neonatology), according to the Minister of Health, and other transfers could take place. On August 22, it was the South Ile-de-France hospital center (CHSF) in Corbeil-Essonnes which had been the target of a cyber attack. Its operation had been strongly disrupted for several weeks, before returning to normal in mid-October.