Posted by Michael Wonder on 18 Mar 2020
Panic buying sparks national shortages of children's medication
18 March 2020 - Chronic medicine shortages are likely to last for weeks, after panic buyers stripped the nation's chemist shelves of medications like children's Panadol, Nurofen and asthma medicines just as the cold and flu season begins.
The shortages have sparked fears young children could wind up in emergency departments with life-threatening fevers, creating further burdens on a health system that is already coping with coronavirus pandemic.
The Australian Medical Association's ethics and medico-legal committee chair, South Australian GP Chris Moy, said the children's Panadol shortage was of particular concern, given the drug's usefulness in reducing fevers in very young children.
