Whooping cough cases exceeded 500. The state provides vaccines for pregnant women

The registered cases of whooping cough in the country already exceed 500 and cover 21 districts of the country. Acting Minister of Health, Dr. Galya Kondeva, announced that the most affected by the disease are children, who account for over 90% of all reported cases.

Since babies under 1 year are the most at-risk group and a large number of them are not immunized due to not being of age for vaccination and other reasons, the Minister of Health announced that he is allowing the first pertussis vaccine to be administered earlierAnd that The Ministry of Health will provide vaccines to all pregnant women from 27 to 36 weeks of gestation who wish to be immunized free of chargeregardless of whether they have health insurance or not.

The chief state health inspector Assoc. Angel Kunchev specified that immunizations of pregnant women will be carried out in specially designated points in each regional city.

As already reported, with a change in the immunization calendar, it will be resolved the first vaccine to be given to newborns when they are one and a half months old (45 days) instead of two months. The measure will enter into force after the Easter holidays, because changes to the Ministry of Health’s regulation must be published in the State Gazette.

“We strive to ensure maximum safety for the most at-risk group – children up to one year old. Especially those who have not reached the immunization age. This is done in two ways, as by lowering the immunization age by two weeks, which we cover 25% of them, both with the possibility of all willing pregnant women to be immunized at immunization points for free as a recommended immunization, so that they provide antibodies for their newborn children. the risk group”Kunchev pointed out.

According to the health authorities, the country is already in epidemic conditions, but an emergency epidemic situation will not be declared.

These and other measures to limit the spread of the disease and to protect the most vulnerable groups were discussed at the government meeting on Friday.

They are also planned better opportunities for free diagnosis of the disease for citizenswhich is currently only available in Sofia – at the National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases and the Metropolitan RZI. In the coming days, tests for whooping cough will also begin to be done in the laboratories of the university hospitals in Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Pleven and Stara Zagora.

According to Prof. Kunchev, all these steps will lead to a sharp reduction in the risk, especially of a severe course and complications. In his words above 80% of those who are infected and cause the disease are unimmunized: either at a pre-immunization age or with missed immunizations for some reason.

The authorities do not recommend mass immunization in the current situation.

Quarantined classes of whooping cough in schools are below 0.3 percent for the entire country and are less than 100the Minister of Education and Science, Prof. Galin Tsokov, announced on Friday.

He stated that the schools work in very good coordination with the Regional Health Inspections (RHI) and the Ministry of Education and Science.

The coming days off and the vacation will contribute to the decrease in the number of people who are sick with whooping cough, as well as the tension in society, and parents and students will be calm, said Tsokov.