Bulgaria declares flu epidemic at an end 11/20/09 10:45

Bulgaria declares flu epidemic at an end

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Bulgaria’s Health Ministry said on November 20 2009 that the influenza epidemic declared two weeks earlier was deemed officially at an end because the rate of infection had dropped to 190 in 10 000 people.

However, in areas where rates of infection continued to be high, local committees could order further measures.

The official end of the epidemic means that routine medical procedures including scheduled operations, medical check-ups and immunisations could resume, the ministry said.

During the time that the epidemic was declared, schools in Bulgaria closed from November 9 to 13.

On November 20, Bulgarian-language mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa quoted Health Minister Bozhidar Nanev as saying that 23 people in Bulgaria had died of flu. The rate of infection was decreasing, Nanev was quoted as saying.

He said that there were 177 flu patients, 511 pneumonia patients and 51 people with flu complications in hospitals.

Nanev praised Bulgaria’s medical establishment as having responded appropriately and professionally to the flu epidemic.

The announcement of the lifting of the flu epidemic, which deemed by health authorities to be a variety separate from A (H1N1), coincided with two new reports of deaths from A (H1N1) in Bulgaria.

In Razgrad, a 17-year-old boy died in hospital, having been admitted after five days of attempted self-treatment at home, Bulgarian news agency Focus reported on November 20.

A day earlier, a woman in Bourgas who had been pregnant died of complications related to A (H1N1), Focus said. The baby had been removed from the woman, the hospital said.