Free whooping cough vaccines for pregnant women – Medical News

Ministry of Health will provide free vaccines against pertussis in all pregnant women at 27 to 36 weeks of gestation. This was announced by the Minister of Health at a briefing in the Council of Ministers Dr. Galya Kondeva. It became clear to him that an emergency epidemic situation will not be introduced in the country due to the spread of whooping cough, because it is not necessary.

Free vaccination of pregnant women will be possible after the Easter holidays due to the need to promulgate the changes in the necessary regulation.

“The registered cases of whooping cough in the country are over 500, compared to 4 in the same period last year. This clearly shows the tendency for an epidemic spread of a disease. Over 90% of cases are children. the risk group of complications and hospitalization are children under 1 year. 84% of them are not immunized due to underage or other reasons“, explained the Minister of Health.

In view of this and the received opinion of the National Council on Immunizations and the received opinion of the expert council, the Ministry of Health undertakes the following actions:

• Immunization calendar update: the basic routine immunization against diphtheria and pertussis is allowed to start earlier than 6 weeks.
• Ministry of Health will provide all pregnant women from 27 to 36 weeks of gestation, who wish to be immunized for free, regardless of whether they have health insurance or not;

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

Immunizations will be carried out free of charge at designated immunization points.
“We are also working on providing wider diagnostics. To the four centers in Varna, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and Pleven we will also add Burgas. In these places, free PCR diagnostics will be done according to the criteria of the first case, severe cases, cases in organized collectives, etc. This will reduce the risk. And in Europe, 80% of the sick are unimmunized or with missed immunizations or completely unvaccinated”stressed Prof. Kunchev.

He explained that vaccination in pregnant women it is recommended after consultation with personal physicians. A recommendation for mass immunization of everyone in this situation is not appropriate, but every pregnant woman can consult with the obstetrician-gynecologist monitoring the pregnancyProf. Kunchev pointed out.