The European Commission has greenlit Romania's request to temporarily suspend the distribution of certain oral antibiotics and antipyretics outside the country.

The measure "is a temporary one. It will be applied for a period of three months, in the context of the current epidemiological situation, and is intended to ensure the continuous availability of these drugs for Romanian patients," the Ministry of Health stated in a press release cited by HotNews.

Romanian authorities notified the European Commission of the "Order on the approval of the List of oral antibiotics and antipyretics whose distribution outside the territory of Romania is temporarily suspended for a period of 3 months.” After examining the order, the Commission considered that the request was justified.

The flu has killed 27 people in Romania so far, and the country is still facing a wave of infections. Half the students at a school in Buzau county recently contracted the flu, adding to the 140,000 cases of respiratory infections. Roughly 5,000 people had to be hospitalized, most of them in Bucharest.

“Children are the biggest problem at the moment. They’re the age group most in need of antibiotics. We get prescriptions for antivirals, and antibiotics nonstop. We’re having a hard time finding generic drugs,” one pharmacist told ProTV.

The export ban does not pertain to drugs manufactured by Romanian producers. It only refers to the cessation of the intra-community distribution of drugs allocated to the Romanian market, the Ministry of Health further clarified. Amoxicillin, Ibuprofen, and Paracetamol are among the drugs that cannot be exported anymore.  

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Artinun Prekmoung | Dreamstime.com)