Vaccine

Free influenza vaccines for people over 65 will be available in the second half of October. This was announced by the state health inspector Dr. Angel Kunchev in the studio of BNT's Morning Block. Four strains of the virus will attack us this winter. Our country is one of the last places in Europe in the number of vaccines purchased.

How to Protect Against Autumn Viruses, and Is Vaccine Recommended as a Measure for This - The topic in the BNT Morning Block was commented by Assoc. Prof. Angel Kunchev, Chief State Health Inspector.

There is practically no activity of the viruses at the moment, Kunchev explained. According to him, the best time for immunization is from October to the end of the year.

Fears provoked by the anti-vaccination movement may appear exaggerated if we consider that, worldwide, the vast majority of people believe that vaccines are safe and effective (79 percent and 84 percent, respectively, according to the World Health Organization). Yet a small number of unvaccinated people is enough to threaten the immunity of the population.

Worldwide, measles cases are increasing, a disease that has a vaccine but can be deadly or cause serious harm to children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The reported cases of the disease have jumped nearly three times in the last one year.

Their total number for 2019 is 365,000, the highest since 2006, but experts suspect millions are actually infected.

Every region in the world, except the Americas, is experiencing an increase in the number of cases of measles, a vaccine-preventable disease that can kill or disable children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Scientists are working hard on a vaccine against the African swine fever because of the outbreak of the virus in Asia, according to the Associated Press quoted by BTA.

Farmers have delayed the spread of the virus for a long time by quarantine and killing the infected animals. However, the devastating onset of the disease in East Asia is intensifying and requires another solution.

The more radical and adequate measures are taken against the spread of African swine fever, the shorter the period to combat this infection will be. This was stated by Prof. Hristo Naidenski, Director of the Institute of Microbiology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Culling the pigs infected with African swine fever is the only way to contain the situation in Bulgaria, said Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis.

Experiments with monkeys have given encouraging results, writes NOVA TV. 

A new HIV vaccine launches tests on people, hoping to find a cure for the disease, write Daily Old and Daily News.

Since nearly 40 years ago the AIDS epidemic has started, only four vaccines have reached the stage of being tested on humans. None of them proved effective.

Since mid-February measles cases in Bulgaria have been rising, Chief State Health Inspector Dr Angel Kunchev told Focus Radio.