The President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians, Thomas Fischbach, has warned of a serious shortage of medicines for children next autumn and winter. “We will again have a supply shortage that could get worse than last time,” said Fischbach of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. There is a lack of fever and pain medication in dosage forms suitable for children, and there is currently no penicillin either.
As the “NOZ” reports, Fischbach is one of the co-signers of an open letter from paediatricians in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland to the health ministers of these countries. “The health of our children and young people is at risk throughout Europe due to the lack of medicines. A quick, reliable and permanent solution is urgently needed!”, quotes the newspaper from the letter to Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD).
The doctors are “greatly concerned about the significant shortage of medicines for the treatment of children and adolescents,” the letter said. The health of children and young people is thereby endangered in the long term. “We see politics as having a responsibility to ensure sufficient production and stocking of important medicines for primary pediatric care in Europe.”
Fischbach called for the production of medicines for children to be promoted in Germany. It must again be sufficiently attractive for the manufacturers to produce the drugs. (AFP)
