site.btaChief State Health Inspector: If Pertussis Epidemic Declared, It Won't Be as Stringent as COVID-19 Pandemic

Even if a pertussis epidemic is declared, there will not be as stringent anti-epidemic measures as there were during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev told BTA. 

According to him, there will not be as much pressure on the healthcare system either. "What we see so far is that no more than 5-10% of pertussis patients are hospitalized, and for a large part of them it is more of a guarantee that they will be under observation, and not because they need intensive medical treatment," he said.

“What we have seen over the last year in Europe is that the course of pertussis is not so severe after all,” he said.

More than half of those who contract the infection have been vaccinated and only suffer a mild case of the disease. In these patients, diagnosis is a problem because many other respiratory viruses can cause coughing, said  Kunchev.

One of the measures we are taking first is to make diagnosis more accessible and have it done in several places across the country, and to have epidemiologists refer certain groups of patients for free diagnosis, he explained.