Residents with severe allergies in the Southeast are becoming increasingly anxious as a shortage of EpiPens continues.

Hans Epp is the owner of Shoppers Drug Mart in Steinbach. He says an EpiPen is a type of auto-injector pen for emergency, life-saving allergy medication called Epinephrine. He says people who go into anaphylactic shock when they come in contact with an allergen rely heavily on EpiPens but they are becoming harder to purchase.

"Across Canada, there is a very severe shortage of EpiPens, mainly the adult EpiPen which is the 0.3 Milligram. We are actually expecting no inventory available for the month of August and possibly longer. Not just at retail stores like ours at Shoppers Drug Mart but also at wholesalers that we would draw from."

Epp says both Pfizer, the company that makes the EpiPen, and Health Canada say the cause of the shortage is persistent manufacturing delays.

Steinbach Resident Jackson Friesen has a severe nut allergy and says the shortage is getting very frustrating.

"EpiPen is genuinely the only option out there for severe allergy sufferers which makes this so much more terrifying. I’ll often place EpiPens all over and now if I have one in the car and it gets too warm and expires, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get another. Being afraid of food is scary enough as is and now knowing if I will be able to get another one, or get to the hospital in time makes it so much worse."

Epp says Pfizer is the only company that makes an auto-injector for Epinephrine which means if they have delays, it affects everyone who relies on them. He adds it would be nice if there was more than one option. He notes he has some tips for these situations.

"There are some solutions or workarounds in situations like this. When we are out of stock, one of the first things that we will suggest is that they never throw out their old EpiPen even if it is expired. Maintain that and keep it close by in case it is needed. If they do use it, that might be the only thing they have at their disposal, but the next thing they should do is contact 911 or get to an emergency room as quickly as possible."

He notes often times, these types of reactions need more than one dose, and this is especially true if the first dose was past the expiration date. He adds the expiration date on EpiPens only lists a year and a month and that means it is good until the end of the listed month.