All pregnant women up to the 36th week of pregnancy will be able to be immunized against whooping cough for free.
This was announced by the health authorities at a briefing on Friday, after earlier in the week both Acting Health Minister Galya Kondeva and Chief State Health Inspector Assoc. Angel Kunchev claimed that there was no definite opinion in support of this. Until now, the proposal was to give the first vaccine to newborn babies a little earlier – at one and a half months, instead of after two months. Experts, as well as experience in other European countries, shows, however, that it is a practice to vaccinate pregnant women in order for the fetus to build antibodies.
The opinions of the various expert councils have already been received, and both measures – for both babies and pregnant women – will come into force, it became clear at today’s briefing.
There are more than 500 registered cases of whooping cough in the country (there were 4 for the same period last year), and more than 90% are children, the data show.
84 percent of children are unvaccinated mainly because they are underage, i.e. they are little babies.
“Taking this into account, I am taking the following actions – updating the immunization calendar, allowing the basic immunization for newborns to start earlier, namely from the sixth week,” Kondeva said.
The Ministry of Health will ensure that all pregnant women, regardless of whether they have health insurance or not, can be vaccinated for free. This immunization is recommended and optional.
“There will be immunization offices in every regional center, we are also ready for outside and mobile ones. There are free vaccines, but they will start vaccinating after the holidays.” Kunchev clarified today.
He explained that the regulation will be changed by developing a vaccination code to feed the information to the health information system.
With the release of the ordinance in the state gazette, the population will receive information on where these centers are located, added Kunchev.
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Tags: pregnant women #36th week immunized whooping cough free
