Half of the districts in the country reported whooping cough

175 are the confirmed new cases of whooping cough, but nationwide data is still awaited and the week is expected to end with little over 280 cases. Epidemic explosions are currently observed in certain collectives.

The most cases are in Sofia city – dozens of classes in the capital have already been quarantined. Cases have also been reported from Stara Zagora, Kyustendil, Varna, Burgas – more than half of the districts in the country have reported cases.

This means that we have an epidemic situation, but it is still too early to talk about an epidemic, he said Prof. Iva Hristova – Director of the National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases. NA large part of the sick are children of school age. According to her, quarantining a school class is an effective way to stop the spread.

An epidemic situation is when there are quite a few sick people who transmit the infection without knowing it, they themselves are asymptomatic or with atypical symptoms.

Experts at the National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases expect the incidence to continue to grow in the coming weeks.

Last week, experts began recommending families in which to expect to appear newborn to be vaccinated. Also, currently pregnant women should also be vaccinated to pass on immunity to their children.

The coverage during the first vaccination of newborns is very good – 91-92%, but it decreases during the following ones. So currently unvaccinated are being screened to catch up.

Iva Hristova explained again that vaccination is the only reliable prevention and urged people not to divert her with all kinds of excuses, because the disease can lead to severe complications in children. She specified that even a vaccinated person can get sick with whooping cough, but he will get over it easily, and immunity from the vaccine lasts at least 10 years.

There are plenty of vaccines and active work is being done to introduce them.