Pharmacist Inken Jung from Potsdam: “Importing antibiotics takes too long” Photo: Thomas Spikermann
By Michael Sauerbier
Pain, fever, red rash: a scarlet fever epidemic is rampant in children! Because there is a lack of medicinal juices, Brandenburg authorizes the import of non-approved medicines.
Pharmacists have been allowed to sell penicillin juices from abroad since Wednesday. Because: “In Germany, there are hardly any antibiotics anymore,” complains chamber spokeswoman Inken Jung. The Potsdam pharmacist: “We have to send patients away or call colleagues for a long time.”
A “quick and pragmatic solution” should bring an order from Health Minister Ursula Nonnemacher (Greens). Her spokesman: “We enable pharmacists to sell antibiotic juices for children that are not approved in Germany.”
“That hardly helps us,” says Inken Jung, “first I have to find a manufacturer and an import company, then the health department has to approve it. It is still unclear whether the health insurance companies will reimburse this. All this takes time. No mother wants to wait that long.”
Penicillin and amoxicillin have also been missing in Berlin for months. “The scarlet fever wave has exacerbated the situation,” says pharmacist President Kerstin Kemmrich. In the capital, the import is not yet allowed. Kemmrich: “It is questionable whether this makes sense with antibiotics. The import takes time. By the time the drug comes, the child is either healthy – or dead.“