There are enough vaccines for children 2 months to 2 years old against whooping cough. Necessary quantities are provided. We have good coverage – 92.4% immunization coverage. The disease occurs in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. This was explained by the Minister of Health, Dr. Galya Kondeva, during the extraordinary meeting of the parliamentary health committee.
The commission is holding an extraordinary meeting due to the increase in cases of whooping cough. Today, the Minister of Health Dr. Galya Kondeva, the Chief State Health Inspector Associate Professor Angel Kunchev, the heads of the Executive Agency “Medical Supervision” and the National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases are being heard.
The disease occurs in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated people, reminded Kondeva. According to her, the measures taken by the ministry are that since the beginning of April they have sent letters to the RZI, and that the doctors should review the lists of tetsa that are subject to immunization.
Diagnostic tests are provided, she said, adding that they are at the National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, as well as the Metropolitan RZI. Criteria have been introduced to whom the diagnosis should be made, the minister explained.
She recalled that earlier today, together with Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev, they decided that newborns can be vaccinated earlier – a month and a half after birth, and not as stipulated in the Immunization Calendar after the second month.
According to her, the Ministry of Health analyzes daily what the spread is. “Every sick person must be subject to self-isolation. Contact persons are placed under medical supervision. In a school, nursery, the affected students are under medical supervision. The group is placed under quarantine within the nursery or school,” she explained. According to Kondeva, the expert council on immunizations is about to issue an opinion on the immunization of pregnant women. Kondeva explained that specialists participate in it.
The director of the National Center, Prof. Iva Hristova, explained that more specialists have been trained to perform the pertussis tests and are ready to take more samples.
At the moment, the capital RZI has been trained for the implementation of the ACP, the training of specialists from other institutions is pending, said Hristova.
When asked what the price of a PCR test for whooping cough is, the Minister of Health explained that it is between BGN 25 and 30. She repeated again that there are tests provided, but patients must meet certain criteria.
Kondeva explained that the issue of whether children can be vaccinated even though they have not reached the age of majority will be discussed. According to her, the vaccination is carried out in the year when the certain age is reached, and not a few months earlier.
The chairman of the health commission, Prof. Kostadin Angelov, asked the health minister how many vaccines there are. 650 doses of Boostrix are available on the free market, on Friday we expect another 2 thousand doses, which will be distributed on Monday. The others are in the MOH warehouse, she said.
10 or 12 thousand tests are planned, Kondeva added.
Prof. Hristova explained that there are between 2 and 5 thousand tests in the National Center.
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