Chief Health inspector warns of risk of measles spread in Bulgaria

There is a risk of measles spreading in Bulgaria due to incomplete vaccination coverage, Chief State Health Inspector Angel Kunchev told journalists at the Health Ministry on Friday. He said that vaccination coverage in Bulgaria with the first dose against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR Vaccine) is 91.2%, and with the second dose - 87.2%, which is lower than the desired 95%.

On December 5, 2023, the government of Romania declared a national measles epidemic, and there are now about 2,500 measles cases and one child has died, Kunchev said. He noted that an epidemic was inevitable when the measles coverage in Romania is low for the first dose and even lower for the second dose.

Some 1,453 measles cases have been detected in the EU, and besides Romania, there are several hundred measles cases in Austria, France, and Germany, Kunchev said. He emphasized that the disease can reach Bulgaria, especially in the wake of the Christmas holidays when people in Europe travel more. 

Measles is the most contagious of all infectious diseases and the risk of someone unsuspected getting the disease is 96%, Kunchev noted. He said that the consequences of measles are serious and the disease literally wipes out immune memory. He said even a year after contracting measles, children are not immunocompetent to any virus and are very susceptible to infection. Kunchev recalled a measles epidemic in Bulgaria a few years ago, stressing that 22,000 people were infected and 22 died.

Measles is present in 40 of the 53 countries in the World Health Organisation's European region, with 40% of those affected being children in the 1-4 age group, said Dr Kremena Parmakova, head of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Department at the Health Ministry. Measles is now a disease that occurs at any age, she said. Every year, children who have not received a single dose of the measles vaccine fall ill, she added.