Influenza Epidemic in Bulgaria: When and How to Protect Ourselves, According to the Health Minister

The topical theme is always influenza and viral infections in January, and conditions have been created for this. When a virus appears, it has all the conditions created, especially when it is more susceptible, for such situations to occur. This was commented on in the studio of "The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov" by the outgoing Minister of Health, Assoc. Dr. Silvi Kirilov.

According to him, we can control them in two ways:

"One way is immunization, which should be undertaken at least 2 months before, and the other way is by observing a certain behavior regime and, most importantly, people who think they already have some symptoms should isolate themselves at home."

Varna was the first to announce a flu epidemic, Dobrich will follow tomorrow, and Burgas and Silistra are approaching the rise of 200 per 10,000 people. Kirilov said that the health authorities monitor these indicators daily and they are tracked in several possible ways.

"The peak of the epidemic is expected at the end of this month, but after a virus is in the population, we have no objective possibilities to stop it. What is important in this case is collective immunity, i.e. how many people have immunity to this virus, which is now H3N2 and has already been proven in the National Reference Laboratory. The other option is to reduce social contacts," explained the Minister of Health.

Specialists from the regional health inspections maintain daily contact with the Chief State Health Inspector, and if an epidemic is declared, which is associated with restricting many activities, the order itself is also coordinated by the Chief State Health Inspector.

Silvi Kirilov is adamant that at this moment there is no need to declare a flu epidemic in the country:

"First, it entered Eastern Bulgaria, then it will apparently overlap, and a national epidemic is unlikely to occur."

According to him, children are most vulnerable to this flu strain, as their immune system does not have the competence that an adult has. However, people over 65 years of age are also at risk from the flu, as their immune system weakens, and they also have other accompanying diseases, and the possibility of complications from the flu is significantly greater.

Watch the full conversation in the video