Strep A antibiotics supply alert issued

A supply alert notice for the antibiotics used to treat the strep A bacterial infection has been issued by the Scottish government.

The notice warns pharmacists there has been a surge in demand for the antibiotics and they "may be temporarily in limited supply at certain wholesalers and pharmacies".

There has been a surge in strep A cases across Scotland in recent weeks.

Pharmacists are being urged to consider alternative antibiotics.

The note from the Scottish government also urges pharmacists to avoid ordering excessive quantities of drugs and where possible to prescribe tablet rather than liquid antibiotics.

• What is strep A and what are the symptoms?

• Antibiotic supply gone from bad to worse, say pharmacists

• Strep A schools in Scotland could get antibiotics

There were 967 laboratory reports of Group A Streptococcus (GAS) in the week ending 11 December, Public Health Scotland (PHS) figures show, well above the 300-480 reports per week during peaks observed in the period since 2016.

PHS received reports of six new cases of the more serious Invasive Group A Streptococcal infections (iGAS) between 5 December and 11 across all age groups in Scotland, with no new reports in children under 10 since last week's report.

A trade body for pharmacists has warned that supplies of the key antibiotics used to treat strep A have "gone from bad to worse" in the past week.

Speaking at First Minister's Questions, Nicola Sturgeon said "nobody is burying their heads in the sand" on the antibiotic supply issue.

She was responding to a question from Scottish Conservative MSP Rachael Hamilton who said doctors in her constituency in the south of Scotland have described the situation as "horrendous".

Ms Sturgeon said powers over the supply of medicine were reserved to Westminster.

She continued: "We are of course aware of some localised supply problems with penicillin and amoxicillin liquid preparations due to the increase in demand across the whole of the UK.

"These types of demand shortages are not uncommon, the NHS has robust systems in place to deal with them.

"The assessment right now is that there is sufficient supply within the UK to meet these needs."

'We know how to treat it'

The Scottish government has previously said there were no supply issues with antibiotics.

Speaking on BBC Radio's BBC Good Morning Scotland programme on Wednesday, national clinical director Jason Leitch said the current increase in strep A cases appeared to be the "three to four year spike that we always get".

He added: "They key is we know how to treat it.

"We have absolutely have enough supplies to treat this, there are challenges with some supply chains but we have alternative antibiotics available so if you are sick you will get the antibiotic you require."