Parents have described 'the nightmare' of trying to get hold of antibiotics for their poorly children.
Demand for commonly prescribed treatments such as penicillin and amoxicillin has increased amid an unseasonably early rise in Strep A infections.
Health officials have lowered the prescription threshold for the drugs following an outbreak of the invasive Group A streptococcal infection (iGAS), which has killed 16 children in recent weeks.
Read more: Strep A in Greater Manchester - everything we know so far as death toll in children hits 16
But it's left parents, whose children are suffering from a range of illnesses, struggling to get their hands on the medication they need.
Some are travelling miles to get it, others are being given it in tablet form and told to crush them up for their kids.
One of those mums is Kate Hazlehurst, from Gee Cross, Hyde, Tameside.
With four-year-old twins Harry and George both suffering from tonsillitis, they were prescribed Phenoxymethylpenicillin solution, but getting it proved impossible.
"No chemist in Hyde had any antibiotics, or Tesco at Hattersley," she said. "Eventually after the doctor gave me a new prescription, I managed to find the tablets at Asda, the only place that had them but they said they were running low."
Getting the twins to take the tablets is another ordeal, despite the advice to crush them into a yoghurt.
"It’s a nightmare as they can still taste it," she said. "The joy of twins, if one won't do something, the other won’t either. They have to have half a tablet four times a day so I will have to drive up to school when they can go back tomorrow at lunchtime to try and get them to take it as there's no way school will manage to get them to have it."
Another parent who's been struggling to get hold of antibiotics is Lyndsey Burrows, from Abram, Wigan.
She spent hours searching for somewhere that had the treatment in stock for her two-year-old son Hugo Booth, who was suffering from tonsillitis and swollen glands.
"I spent two hours driving round Friday night with my sister ringing some," she said. "I bet we tried everywhere open in Wigan and Leigh. I had to to go back out on Saturday morning to try the ones that weren’t open, finally got some after an hour of being out."
Dozens more parents have been sharing their own struggles to get medication on our Manchester Family Facebook page.
One dad said he ended up ringing around 30 pharmacies before finding one with the treatment in stock for scarlet fever.
Others said they too had been given antibiotics in tablet form as an alternative.
Another issue that seems to be affecting supply is the cost of antibiotics. Pharmacies say they are being forced to dispense antibiotics at a steep loss because of soaring wholesale prices.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has said that pharmacists are 'under enormous pressure' and 'struggling to get supplies' amid the outbreak.
Yet the government is denying there is any shortage.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “There is no supplier shortage of antibiotics available to treat Strep A. We sometimes have surges for products and increased demand means some pharmacies are having difficulties obtaining certain antibiotics.
“We rely on competition to drive down the prices of generic medicines which generally results in lower prices for the NHS – this means prices can fluctuate, but no company should use this as an opportunity to exploit the NHS.
“Where companies are found to be abusing their dominant position by charging excessive and unfair prices, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can take action against businesses and individuals engaged in anti-competitive conduct.”
Have you struggled to get antibiotics in recent weeks? Have you been given tablets for your child instead of medicine? Let us know in the comments here.
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
- How Strep A can affect adults - from toxic shock to a 'flesh eating disease'
- How Strep A spreads and how to prevent becoming infected - according to a local GP
- Should I send my child to school amid Strep A - important advice from Greater Manchester health chiefs
- Can you contract Strep A twice?
- Mum's warning signs to look out for after son's Strep A was mistaken for tonsillitis
