Health Ministry: Measles cases in Bulgaria now number 46
A total of 46 cases of measles in Bulgaria had been confirmed as of noon on February 26, the Health Ministry said.
There were 36 in the Blagoevgrad district, seven in the city of Sofia and three in the district of Sofia, the ministry said.
Six days earlier, the ministry reported 32 confirmed measles cases in Bulgaria. Health authorities warned that those infected had not been immunised and the government ordered a campaign to identify and vaccinate children who had not been.
The Health Ministry said that as of February 26, ten of the cases were children under a year old, 21 in the age group one to four, five in the age group five to nine, two cases in the age group 10 to 14, three in the age group 15 to 19, one in the age group 20 to 24, two in the 25 to 29 age group and two in the 35 to 39 age group.
The ministry said that a case of suspected measles had been registered in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Varna, while on the afternoon of February 26, Bulgarian National Radio – quoting Dr Yanka Draganova of the regional health inspectorate – said that it had been confirmed.
The infected patient in Varna is a woman aged 40. She has been admitted to the infectious diseases clinic and all the people with whom she has been in contact in recent weeks are being sought out for examination.
The report said that the woman had become ill after a skiing holiday in Dobrinishte, a small town and ski resort in the Blagoevgrad district – which since the outbreak of measles in Bulgaria has seen the most cases.
Plovdiv news website podtepeto.com reported that a vaccination campaign against measles and rubella was underway in two predominantly Roma neighbourhoods of the city, Shekera and Armana.
Authorities had established that in these two areas, 51 children had never been vaccinated. A check found that of the 51, thirty-six were not in Bulgaria and a number had moved to other cities and towns in the country.
(Photo: US Air Force)
