The coronavirus epidemic which appeared in China but which has spread across Europe as well is cause for concern for the public and businesses in Bulgaria. Although at this time there is no confirmed coronavirus case in the country, people have been taking precautions - it is getting more and more difficult to find medical face masks in any pharmacy in the country, for example. Nikolay Kostov, chairman of the Association of Pharmacy Owners in Bulgaria commented for the Bulgarian National Radio that the shortage is due to the fact that the principal manufacturer of medical masks is China which only produces amounts to meet its own needs, and export to other countries is, in practice not allowed.

In an interview for the BNR epidemiologist Dr. Bozhidarka Kayrakova, Director of the Surveillance of Communicable Diseases Directorate at the Regional Health Inspectorate, Sofia advised people travelling to regions affected by the virus to keep a very high standard of personal hygiene – eyes, nose and mouth are the gateway for the virus, that is why good hand hygiene is so important.  It is also important to restrict contacts with people who are visibly ill.

A vox pop showed that young people have a different attitude to the virus. Some take the whole thing with a pinch of salt and say it is mass psychosis. But there are others who take a different view:

We seem to be underestimating the risk because health is what we should be thinking about first and foremost. On the other hand – you remember years ago there was mass psychosis in the US connected with anthrax which subsided relatively quickly. The big question that remains is: where on Earth did this virus come from? I am a conspiracy theorist and I don’t think anything that has happened is just an accident. It is not a normal thing there being so many deaths and nobody being able to stop it to date, a young woman says.

There is another problem as well – public awareness of the first symptoms of the disease. It is insufficient and this entails risk of complications.

As a matter of fact I am not informed well enough. My guess is that the symptoms are similar to the symptoms of the standard viral diseases, a middle-aged woman says. I try to keep a high standard of personal hygiene. That seems to me to be the key to prevention with any contagious disease. My concerns with regard to public health are also along the same lines.

If anyone has any suspicion of having contracted coronavirus they should know that to be tested they need to be showing symptoms, otherwise the test will come back negative. The most frequent symptoms are high temperature and symptoms of initial pneumonia, but to minimize the risk of misdiagnosis it is best to see our GP in the event of the slightest suspicion of infection. People often ignore this advice and this is probably the cause of the negative statistics that more than 50 percent of Bulgarians have not been to see their general practitioner even once in the space of one year. Hence the question: Do you go to see your GP often?

Yes, I do because I have a chronic disease, one woman says. But when it comes to viruses or colds I don’t go right away. I take preventive measures with old-time home remedies and I do that throughout winter. That is how I try to keep healthy and fit for work.

China’s ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhuey brought a glimmer of hope in the fight against the coronavirus when he said the normal rhythm of life in the very centre of the outbreak – Wuhan – and in the other provinces would be restored by the end of this or during next month. The reason is that China has developed a vaccine against the virus though it will take time until it is approved after additional testing.

Photos: BGNES and co.china-embassy.org