Mon, Mar 22 2010

Health Ministry: Bulgaria is facing a nationwide H1N1 crisis

Wed, Oct 28 2009 15:03 CET 1496 Views 4 Comments
Health Ministry: Bulgaria is facing a nationwide H1N1 crisis

Photo: Christian Charisius

Bulgaria is facing a nationwide H1N1 pandemic that could potentially affect as much as half the population, according to the Health Ministry.

Medical authorities, however, have refrained from dispatching an all-out warning because the "threshold" needed for that to happen is 200 people infected in every 10 000  although the situation is slowly but irreversibly deteriorating across Bulgaria.

The worst affected regions in the country are Yambol, Shoumen, Pleven, Lovech, Bourgas and Gabrovo, with big cities like Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna also registering increasing cases of the new influenza, according to Dr Angel Kunchev from the contagious diseases department in the Health Ministry, quoted by Dnevnik daily.

An emergency "holiday" was introduced in schools in Tryavna on October 28 with as many as 250 students potentially affected, by either swine flu or its seasonal equivalent.

"Because the town is small, the community is tight and contacts are intense and frequent, we advise people to abstain from any unnecessary interaction at all cost," Kunchev told Dnevnik.

"Six students are confirmed to have contracted the H1N1 virus in Tryavna, which is enough because in such circumstances, it is the dominant virus that usually affects the others in 90 per cent of the cases, and H1N1 is definitely the dominant one in this case".

Meanwhile, in Yambol, the situation was significantly worse in the secondary school of mathematics where 247 "confirmed and tangibly sick children" carried on attending classes and interacting with fellow pupils in spite of their condition.

"We have 247 out of 800 students confirmed sick, and they still came to school. We kept telling people that, should they experience the virus, they should remain at home and avoid contact," Kunchev said.

"We uphold the advice from the World Health Organisation that whenever someone displays symptoms of flu, regardless if its seasonal flu, it should be regarded as swine flu and extreme precautionary measures should be implemented," he said.

Comments

Anonymous taxman Thu, Oct 29 2009 22:42 CET
Inappropriate comment?

BG H1N1 first death-case 28oct.

BG got only 180.000 doses
= most get now vaccine at all!

6000+ dead soo far,(1000+ in us)

comic: maybe sheep can get it..
and you have a lot of them..

Anonymous vanko Thu, Oct 29 2009 08:29 CET
Inappropriate comment?

Considering all the evidence coming out of the states that the figures there have been falsified and they no longer even check for the h1n1 virus (only about 2% of those withe flu like symptoms actually had h1n1 which in most cases was very mild)how can the WHO say a flu like symtom should be treated like swine flu??? This is only to completely distort the figures and sell toxic drugs to sheep. I have to agree with both the previous comments. Check out Doctor Gary Null on You-Tube. The desception is frightening and profit mark up on some drugs is as much as 500,000% no I didnt get the figure wrong!!! Keep away from vaccines at all costs

Anonymous Cosmos Wed, Oct 28 2009 19:56 CET
Inappropriate comment?

Load of pork chops

Anonymous Dianne Hatton Wed, Oct 28 2009 19:47 CET
Inappropriate comment?

Load of bollocks

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