There is a shortage of 211 drugs in the United States, which greatly increases the risk of patient treatment

> There is a shortage of 211 drugs in the United States, which greatly increases the risk of patient treatment. In the United States, the current shortage of medical drugs is very serious, and doctors, hospitals and federal regulatory agencies have to...

There is a shortage of 211 drugs in the United States, which greatly increases the risk of patient treatment. The current shortage of medical drugs in the United States is so severe that doctors, hospitals and federal regulators are having to grapple with it before jeopardizing the lives of patients with cancer, heart disease, accident survivors and more. The Washington Post recently reported that in 2010, a total of 211 drugs were in short supply, three times the number in 2006. At the end of March this year, at least 89 new drugs were in short supply, making the problem of drug shortages even worse across the United States. Due to lack of drugs, some medical centers have been forced to ration drugs (such as those desperately needed by leukemia patients), delay surgeries, use other alternative care, or use substitutes. However, alternatives may be less effective or have more side effects, which may increase the risk of overdose and sometimes lead to fatal errors. Mark., President of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Warner described two catastrophic events over the past year as a result of drug shortages. In one, a 16-year-old boy suffered brain damage because doctors did not have the muscle-relaxing medication they needed while performing complex jaw surgery. In another case, a middle-aged woman became a permanent vegetative state because her doctors did not have access to epinephrine medication after undergoing complex heart surgery. Doctors and nurses waste valuable time when dealing with emergencies because they have to use unfamiliar substitutes or recalculate medication doses, thus increasing the chance of a possible overdose or underdosing. One of the biggest problems is the lack of a pre-prepared dosing syringe. Many hospitals are retooling electronic drug delivery systems or preparing correct doses in advance for emergency room use to minimize errors. However, there were still quite a few errors and false alarms in the reports, including some patients who were in urgent need of emergency treatment. According to reports, at least two patients died from overdoses of hydromorphone due to a lack of morphine. In Alabama this year, there have been at least 19 cases of illness worsening and nine deaths due to a lack of medication. The cause was that he was using a new replacement feeding tube, which became contaminated with bacteria. Many of the drugs in shortage are long-established, cheaper prescription drugs that are less profitable, causing many companies to halt production. Most of these drugs are "sterile injectable" drugs, and the production process is more complicated, so they are more likely to cause problems. In addition, pharmaceutical companies increasingly rely on imported raw materials from other countries, which is also a reason for shortages. Many of the affected drugs are painkillers used in health care, such as morphine, norepinephrine and other drugs commonly used in emergency rooms, as well as electrolytes commonly used in intensive care unit patients. Additionally, there are shortages of many different classes of drugs, including antibiotics and many cancer drugs, causing oncologists to postpone or change carefully scheduled chemotherapy treatments. Different drugs have different reasons for shortages, but experts cite a series of common factors: After the consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry, there are few manufacturers that can produce low-profit old drugs. That is to say, when raw materials are in short supply, as long as equipment fails or government regulators clamp down, the shortage problem may worsen. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed foreign countries to import shortages of propofol for anesthesia. This year, the agency approved the introduction of a number of other drugs, including two cancer treatments. Congress has now begun legislation to try to address drug shortages. For example, the bill would require pharmaceutical companies to notify the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in advance of any possible causes of shortages and give the agency new powers to try to alleviate shortages.