Flu season is near and the topic regarding vaccines has again become in focus of public attention. Some 150,000 Bulgarians were inoculated this year. It turned out that only 3%-4% of the Bulgarians have chosen this method of prevention. The number of those Bulgarians is not that high, but a serious increase in the number of inoculated people was registered as compared to 2016, National Health Consultant Dr Angel Kunchev announced. Many people are still cautious and avoid immunization due to the wide spread information about the risks stemming from the polyvalent vaccines. The so-called anti-vaccination movement of parents refusing to inoculate their children in accordance with the immunization calendar in Bulgaria has been gaining bigger popularity. They are worried that vaccines may cause autism, problems in immune system or sterility. That is why celebrated doctors and health experts joined recently the campaign named Talk Openly about Vaccines, in order to try to debunk myths about the harmful effect of vaccines with scientific facts.

“Imagine you have a shield, but you don’t use it to protect yourself from the spears which are flowing towards you and you are waiting to get wounded instead, hoping that no spear would pierce your heart. This is what we are taking about in this case and I really don’t understand why we do it, the Chairman of the Association of the General Practitioners in Bulgaria Associate Professor Lyubomir Kirov told Radio Bulgaria. The right of the parents to take decisions on behalf of their children does not mean children can be deprived of healthcare. And this is exactly what happens in this case. The authorities must adopt and impose strict sanctions in these cases. Sanctions exist even now, but nobody respects them.”

Infants and young people continue to die in the 21^st century from meningitis, poliomyelitis, rubeola and tetanus. One century ago Bulgaria was the first European country which managed to eradicate smallpox due to a decree that made vaccination mandatory. Many countries have started to do the same and France was the last country which made parents to inoculate their children as of the beginning of 2018. Vaccines are mandatory also in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and Belgium. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Ministry of Health called on the Bulgarian parents to urgently immunize children against water pox due to the increased number of children affected by this disease in the Balkans. We are following very carefully the situation, because things were dramatic in some of our neighboring countries, National Health Consultant Dr Angel Kunchev told Radio Bulgaria. The water pox outbreak in Romania affected nearly 6,000 people and dozens of fatalities were registered there. Italy, Germany, Greece, Serbia and Macedonia are also affected by the disease. No cases of people suffering from water pox have been registered in Bulgaria yet and we registered the last case in August 2017. In Doctor Kunchev’s view the good immunization coverage in Bulgaria (between 88% and 96%) prevented water pox outbreaks in this country.

“I would advise parents to think and realize that a series of dangerous diseases such as poliomyelitis are quite rare now thanks to vaccines, Olympic Champion Theresa Marinova said. She became an ambassador of the campaign Talk Openly about Vaccines. We can read a lot on the Internet and some of the information will be perhaps true, but most of it would have nothing to do with reality. That is why we would better trust reliable sources and proven scientific facts and ask the competent people and institutions only.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov