My poor poor Scotty.
He has two ear infections.
AND GUESS WHAT? Denmark is out of penicillin. This screams THIRD WORLD! No, can't go to another pharamcy. No, can't go to the hospital. No, can't go to Copenhagen...
Who runs out of penicillin? They have been out for a while too because we had friends that couldn't get anything for their son a couple months ago... Put Flemming and Henerick on a bus and send them somewhere to get some. Make a phone call... Fill out an order form... DO SOMETHING.
So I spent two hours going up and down the three levels between the doctor and the pharmacy. It finally ended with the doctor's office closed and me in the pharmacy getting angry, talking sternly, and refusing to leave the counter until they gave me medicine for my son who was whimpering in the corner.
The lady finally went into the back and ten minutes later came back with a bottle of something which she said would work. I think she just wanted me to leave. Fine. I had medicine, I was semi-happy. The bottle had a long word on it which had the word "penicillin" in it... Why did I have to turn into crazy mom to get this? I could go down the path that I didn't get it because I wasn't Danish... Two hours... same lady... she had it in the back all along...
I went home and researched what exactly I had before I fed it to Scotty. Seems it's been approved in Estonia so we're all good. :)
The pharamacist actually said, "Don't worry the pressure will burst and then he'll feel better." SERIOUSLY?? I hope her eardrums burst!
I'm just a little ray of sunshine over here, aren't I? :)
BUT. I am happy I do have the medicine. For a while I didn't think that I would get it at all... that was a unique and stressful feeling. Scotty would be in pain. Lots of kids don't get the medicne they need. We are actually lucky. ...even with all my complaining.
5 comments:
http://dagensmedicin.dk/nyheder/2009/02/20/flydende-penicillin-er-en-/index.xml
Since January the liquid narrow spectrum penicillin named Primcillin has been on backorder at the same time as the replacment product Rocilin went out production. And it has not been possible to get hold of Vepicombin either according to a pediatrician from Odense.
Regular penicillin is not sold out, but the liquid version for small children who can't swallow pills is on backorder.
The problem has nothing to do with "third wolrd" Danish pharmacies, but the medicine companies have been handed over product rights and aren't able to deliver the life important penicillin. This is very unfortunate and the situation forces doctors to use broad spectrum penicillin instead of narrow spectrum penicillin. They have been adviced to stay away from broad spectrum penicillin whenever possible to dampen the even bigger problem of the ever growing multi-drug-resistant bacterias.
Nomeco, the largest medicine distributor has been trying to get hold of liquid Primcillin since January, but has not been able to get any. Nomeco knows it's not out of production, but they don't know why they can't get any, and there's no direct replacement products on the market today.
The CEO of Meda who is the owner of Primcillin has can not give any good explanation for why Primcillin has been on backorder for a month. She says that they haven't been able to get any for their supplier and got the reason that two machines has broken down.
But she also said they had just now received new supplies which are on their way to the pharmacies now.
A professor in microbiolygy from Odensen University says the problem is that only very few countires use narrow spectrum penicillin which is used in Scnadinavia. Outside Scandinavia they don't use these oral penicillins. This is the reason that they have much more resistant bacterias.
The reason the manufacturer often changes is because there's very little profit on this product. It's an old product that can't be sold outside Denmark because most countries don't use narrow spectrum penicillin.
The consequence will soon be that we end where we no longer will use narrow spectrum penicillin, but broader spectrum penicillin. And this is very unfortunate because more bacterias become multi-drug-resistant which is about the worst that can happen, because then penicillin treatments will have no effect any longer and many people will die as a consequence, just like pole did before we had penicillin.
Man, you guys have had a rough week! Hope they both feel better soon.
Denmark and the other Nordic countries along with Holland are among the only countries in the world who have manged to keep the number of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) bacterias below 1% for the last 25 years. There a number of reasons for this one of them being the low usage of antibiotics in Denmark. As opposed to for example the US where they use more antibiotics and where MRSA has become a huge problem and it spreads throughout America with express speed these years. In 2005 in America 19,000 people died of MRSA and 94,000 got serious infections. This means today more Amercians die of MRSA infections than because of AIDS. American reserchers says the growth of MRSA in America is very alarming.
851 Danes were infected with MRSA in 2005. In 2006 the number was reduced to 706 and around 600 in 2007.
31.8 out of every 100,000 American got the bacteria. In Denmark only 0.6-1 out of every 100.000 got the bacteria.
The Amreican statistic only contains the serious cases while the Danish static include all the healty carriers of the bacteria too, which was 359 out of the 851 persons.
Ummm my comment is not nearly as comprehensive as Anon´s but I do hear your frustration!! All those taxes we pay should get us some kind of faster and better care, right??? It is so much easier when we adults are sick, but not our kiddoes!!!!
Oh, what a rough week for you and the family. Glad you were able to get some relief for the little guy. Hope next week is better. I took a quick trip to the big city of Aarhus this weekend...nice place and so many folks speak English :)!
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