Measles cases in Bulgaria now number 759 – chief health inspector
The number of measles cases in Bulgaria continues to increase and now add up to 759, Chief State Health Inspector Dr Angel Kunchev said in a television interview on May 28.
This was more than 40 times the number than at the same time last year, Kunchev said.
On February 26, the Health Ministry reported that at that point, there were 46 measles cases in Bulgaria.
Currently, two-thirds of cases were in Sofia and there also were a large number of cases in the district of Blagoevgrad, where the outbreak was first reported.
There are also measles cases in Pazardzhik, Bourgas, Pernik and Plovdiv, as well as Samokov, Ihtiman and Kurdzhali.
Kunchev said that in two-thirds of current cases, children had not been immunised, while in the remaining one third, the children were under immunisation age.
He said that in most cases, the infections were the result of the frivolous attitude of parents, the absence of a GP, a trip outside Bulgaria or had happened after the family moved from one place to another.
In February, it emerged from a survey that people in Bulgaria are the least likely, among all the countries of the European Union, to agree that vaccines are safe.
(Photo: flickr.com/pahowho)
