Babies will be able to be vaccinated against whooping cough earlier

Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev held a meeting with the Minister of Health Dr. Galya Kondeva, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science Emilia Lazarova and the Chief State Health Inspector Assoc. Angel Kunchev, informed by the government information service.

It was decided by the Ministry of Health to allow the first immunization against whooping cough to be administered earlier, a month and a half after birth, and not as laid down in the Immunization Calendar – after the baby’s second month. The reason for this is that at the moment, the most registered cases are those under the age of 1 year, and complications in newborns are more common.

Minister Kondeva pointed out that the situation is constantly monitored, and the increase in morbidity is not a surprise to experts, since such peaks are usually observed in a period between 3 and 5 years.

This was confirmed by Associate Professor Kunchev, pointing out that an increase in cases has been observed since the middle of last year in various countries in Europe and around the world. In Bulgaria, the registered cases of whooping cough are 314, compared to 4 for the same period in 2023.

During the meeting, the organization of kindergartens and schools where children with pertussis symptoms should not be admitted was also discussed. The authorities call on parents to also be responsible and, at the slightest doubt, stop their children from attending educational institutions and seek medical help.

For her part, Emilia Lazarova commented that the Ministry of Education and Science is carefully monitoring the situation and daily collecting information on the number of quarantined classes from the Regional Directorates of Education. The Ministry of Education and Culture is ready to respond to an increase in morbidity and, if necessary, distance learning will be introduced in an electronic environment for individual classes. Prime Minister Glavchev was confident that the State Matriculation Examinations and the National External Assessment will be conducted normally and no children will be harmed.

The Prime Minister stated that he is satisfied with the measures taken and believes that the institutions are prepared. “We can reassure the public, we are ready to deal with it,” concluded Glavchev.