Canada’s Drug Shortage For Children Is So Bad, People Are Driving To America For Help

 Canada is experiencing such a dire shortage of children’s medication that Canadians are crossing the border to seek products from American pharmacies.

Canada is facing coinciding waves of coronavirus, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, all of which cause fevers in children. The unprecedented demand has led to a months-long nationwide shortage, and those seeking relief are taking matters into their own hands and by turning to the United States, according to CTV News.

Canadian hospitals are so overwhelmed that the main hospital dedicated to providing care to young children, Sick Kids Hospital, has postponed select surgeries in an attempt to safeguard its critical care capabilities, according to the hospital’s website. However, parents hoping to treat their ailing children at home are finding empty shelves at their local pharmacies. Acetaminophen and ibuprofenare are currently unavailable for purchase, so desperate parents are trekking across the border to find alternative solutions, putting increased pressure on American supplies, according to The Guardian.

Border cities are now experiencing depletion of their supply. A CVS on Jefferson East in Detroit was completely sold out of Children’s Tylenlol, Motrin, and Advil. The store manager blamed Canadian shoppers, according to CTV News.

Border cities are feeling the impact. 

A Rite Aid in the same area had very few bottles on the shelf and a Walgreens just east of that location was completely depleted of children’s Tylenol and Advil but had a few generic options available. The pharmacy owners all reported seeing Canadians scouring their shelves in search of the much-needed medications, according to CTV News.

Canada’s public health agency announced that foreign shipments of children’s fever medicine are on their way, but they didn’t specify which types of medications were ordered, or the exact date they were scheduled to arrive, which offered little in the way of peace of mind for concerned Canadian parents, according to The Guardian.

 

“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 many, that is simply too long to wait.