April 22, 2008
Members of parliament, experts from the Ministry of Health, medical doctors and NGO representatives took part in the Round- table discussion organized by parliament on April 22, 2008. The event was dedicated to the problems of the prophylactic immunotherapy and was organized by the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization Office in Bulgaria and the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention with the cooperation of parliamentary members, part of the Consensus on socially significant diseases.

The Round table was held under the patronage of Chairman Georgi Pirinski in the framework of the European Immunization Week.Bulgaria takes part in the event for the first time. This is the third year since the Week was introduced in Europe and is a joint initiative of the WHO European Regional Bureau and the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This year week’s slogan was “Prevent, Protect,Immunize”.

The participants discussed the need to constantly update the “National Immunization Schedule”, the need of prophylactic immunizations and the right to vaccination against vaccine preventable communicable diseases.

In his welcoming address to the participants Chairman Pirinski stressed the need to provide the public with information about the vaccination benefits. He noticed as well that it was unacceptable for the European Union to have 23 thousand children dying from vaccine preventable diseases every year.

The other topics discussed were the European Immunization Week, the National Immunization Schedule, the challenge that Flu represents for every Public health system.