Test for it strep, this year swabs performed in pharmacies are booming. If from October 2021 to March 2022 3,857 had been sold in Italy, from October 2022 to March 2023, there were 77,661 equal to a 1,913% increase. This is indicated by the data processed for Ansa by Iqvia, a global provider of data and analysis in the healthcare and pharmaceutical fields.
Sore throat, when is it strep? Symptoms, treatments and how to recognize it. The handbook of the Child Jesus
Streptococcus, boom in tampons and the purchase of antibiotics
Hand in hand, as emerges from the data, the sales of antibiotics indicated against this bacteriumor the‘amoxicillin: from November 2021 to March 2022, 11.9 million doses were sold compared to 16.4 million in the period November 2022 – March 2023, equal to +38% in 2023.
Taking into consideration that this antibiotic is also used for other indications, it is possible to believe that the widespread diffusion of streptococcus A that we have witnessed in recent months and which we are still witnessing, is one of the reasons for the growth, explain Iqvia.
Scarlet fever alarm, cases are booming. Doctors: “No antibiotics”. Symptoms and how to recognize it
Scarlet fever alarm
Since last spring, the Federation of the Fofi pharmacists’ orders «alerted the system to the growing unavailability of various categories of medicines and the concrete risk of reaching extremely critical situations such as the one we are experiencing with the antibiotic amoxicillin, which has worsened in recent weeks because of a 50% increase in strep infections and scarlet fever, especially among children and teenagers». This was stated by the president of the Federation of Italian Pharmacists’ Orders (Fofi), Andrea Mandelli, speaking on Tg 4 “Diary of the Day”.
Added to this, he warned, are the now well-known procurement difficulties of both the active ingredient necessary for the production of the drug amoxicillin and the raw materials for packaging, as a direct consequence of the Covid epidemic and the current geopolitical scenario. In the absence of the active ingredient, the unavailability of equivalent medicines also increases, which determines the need to resort to alternative, less appropriate antibiotics.