Pharmacies in Bulgaria have no flu vaccines on sale right now. New supplies will arrive after 10 November, said Bogdan Kirilov, executive director of the Bulgarian Drug Agency (BDA).

On 17 October, Dr Gergana Nikolova, deputy chair of the National Association of General Practitioners, warned that vaccines were running short. She said GPs had to decide for themselves who to vaccinate and who to turn away. Pharmacies were then expected to get doses around the middle of November.

Earlier report: Flu vaccines are running short, GPs choose who to vaccinate

Pharmacies will get 100,000 injectable vaccines in all. Of these, 70,000 were planned from the start. For the other 30,000, the agency is checking whether it can redirect them from another European country.

Last season, about 180,000 vaccines reached the open market and sold out fast. The initial 70,000 doses are almost three times fewer. If supplies do not grow, pharmacies could run out very quickly.

The Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union says Influvac will not be sold in Bulgarian pharmacies at all in the 2026/2027 season. The maker is delivering less than planned, and everything it has goes to the national programmes.

The programmes have about 500,000 injectable vaccines this year, 140,000 more than last season. So far, Bulgaria has received 150,000 doses for children and for people aged 65 and over. Of these, 50,000 are the high-dose Efluelda, which is free for people aged 75 and over. The rest is Vaxigrip: 84,000 doses for people over 65 and 16,000 for the children's programme.

Another 300,000 doses of Vaxigrip should reach the distributor's warehouses between 9 and 13 November. Because of this, part of the free vaccination will start later than usual.

Kirilov put the delay down to an unusual change in the make-up of this season's vaccines. For the first time, all three strains recommended by the World Health Organization had to be changed at once. One of them was chosen later, so production started late. Demand for flu vaccines is rising around the world, and other countries have supply problems too. In Bulgaria the situation is harder because pharmacies are getting small amounts.

Kirilov said the agency has met its obligations, and the makers and the holders of the marketing authorisations must explain why the shortage happened. He said how vaccines are shared out also depends on the size of the market. Greece is getting about 3.6 million doses this season, and the agency head said this difference in scale is one factor in the makers' decisions. Some Bulgarians already travel to Greece to get vaccinated.

More than 15,000 doses from the last campaign will be destroyed, and the maker will pay the cost, Kirilov said. He said both last year's shortage and this year's destruction of doses are linked to how deliveries are organised and to the makers' business decisions. Vaccines are a seasonal product and must be made, delivered and used within a set time. When supply does not match real demand, some doses go unused.

People cannot buy vaccines online, because the law bans it. The reason is the special rules for storage and transport. If the temperature was not kept right, a vaccine can become unfit for use even if the pack looks fine. So a vaccine from another country cannot be ordered online and sent to Bulgaria.

Epidemiologists advise people not to skip the shot because of the later deliveries. October is the best time to get vaccinated, but November is not too late, and a delay does not make the protection pointless. The immune response usually builds up in about two weeks after the shot.

Flu can cause serious complications, especially in older people, young children, pregnant women and people with long-term illnesses. The vaccine does not guarantee that a person will not fall ill, but it lowers the risk of severe illness and complications.

Updated (28.10, 15:43): Dr Kremena Parmakova, head of the communicable disease surveillance department at the Ministry of Health, says 129,000 doses are set aside for sale in pharmacies, not 100,000 as first reported. The injectable forms are expected in mid-November. The two national programmes will get 546,000 doses, not about 500,000. Deliveries so far are 75,000 nasal and 150,000 injectable doses, and another 50,000 are expected tomorrow.

Follow-up: Pharmacies to get 129,000 flu vaccine doses, not 100,000