SEASONAL VIRUSES AND DECLARATION ABOUT VACCINE PROPHYLACTICS IN BULGARIA
On the 31st of January, the first meeting for the year of the sequence “Vaccine school” was held. The event started with the participation of the general practitioner and deputy-chairman of the National association of General Practitioners in Bulgaria (NAGPB), district of Shumen, doctor Milen Cholakov, who provided important information and guidelines about the current epidemiological conditions in the country.
Doctor Cholakov reviewed the issues related to respiratory viruses that circulate at present in our country. He shared about the high morbidity rate of flu and COVID and the need of rapid consulting a doctor within the first 24 hours after the symptom manifestation. Doctor Cholakov told about the flu symptoms and the features of its impact on the various age groups. Special attention was paid to the people aged over 65 with chronic diseases. He warned that in their case symptoms could be light but oftentimes transit into more serious complications such as pneumonia. Doctor Cholakov highlighted the importance of testing in order to identify the particular virus and choose the suitable treatment. He presented a map that illustrates the morbidity rates in the 28 districts throughout the country, and called for attention and cautiousness in epidemic circumstances. The doctor warned the citizens to avoid public places with large gatherings of people, and warned about the significance of social distance. Doctor Milen Cholakov warned about avoiding self-treatment and expressed his assurance that the joint efforts by health services and society would help to cope with epidemic circumstances in the country.
The next speaker was the master of pharmacy Mariela Marcheva, who presented the Declaration about improvement of vaccine prophylactics in Bulgaria – a result of the held two national conferences on vaccine preventable diseases organized by “Astra Forum” Foundation. Thanks to Foundation’s initiatives and the elaborated Declaration, numerous problematic topics found their resolution. Thus, for example, as a result of this initiative, the National flu program was complemented to include pneumococcal vaccine for people aged over 65. The master of pharmacy shared that as a result of the efforts, the Ministry of health /MH/ passed the resolution to extend the period for administering the flu vaccine. This measure, together with the inclusion of the pneumococcal vaccine in the program resulted in almost double increase of vaccines compared to the previous year. This success had a positive impact on the vaccination scope within the country, master of pharmacy Marcheva announced.
She also reported on the elaboration of National health information centre for the implementation of patient’s e-file. This would provide the specialists with access to important information about patient’s condition.
Additionally, during the process of optimization of vaccination efforts, the Ministry of Health created the website “Plus me” that provides extensive information about vaccines and covers in the country. This resource is available to all the citizens whereas it aims promoting awareness and preparation for vaccination.
Mariela Marcheva said that the achieved improvements are great success for the country and that they not only extend vaccination scope but improve the quality of health cares in Bulgaria.
In her presentation, the master of pharmacy Marcheva outlined the key moments on which we need to work – digitalization, improvement of communication between doctor and patient, optimization of vaccines’ logistic, creation of unified pattern for refusal from vaccination for the people that refuse vaccination without medical reasons, improvement of collaboration between the Ministry of Health and the vaccine producers, facilitation of the process for registration at the free market, provision of supplies of vaccines that are missing in the country.
She also shed light on the missing specific vaccines that concern people travelling outside of Europe, as well as the need of legislative changes, including the modifications of the Health Act and Ordinance 15. The clarification of coordination councils’ role for the national programs was also outlined as a key moment. We stated the idea of deepening the study of vaccine prophylactics in university curricula.
In order to get exhaustive analysis of challenges, watch the full episode of the series “Vaccine school“:
