Bulgaria’s Health Authorities: We do not have an Emergency with Chicken Pox and Scarlet Fever

"At the moment, we are not in an emergency situation regarding the spread of chicken pox and scarlet fever," reported the Regional Health Inspection (RHI).

However, a report from the RHI website shows that in the same week in 2019 and 2020, the spread of scarlet fever was 25 and 19 cases. For the same week in 2023, they were 151, reports the National Radio.

"There is an increased morbidity, but things are not dramatic," said the general practitioner Dr. Stanislava Kraiselska in an interview with the National Radio.

She emphasized that some of the submitted information about scarlet fever is incorrect. According to her, there is a false incease:

"Very often the parent self-purposely tests the throat secretions of the child, not in an official clinic. Streptococcus pyogenes is isolated, which is also the cause of scarlet fever, but also of other diseases, and we may also have a healthy carrier. The nurse at the school usually says 'quickly write a notice of scarlet fever'. This is not scarlet fever".

In order to make a diagnosis of scarlet fever, there are certain clinical criteria, she emphasized and described them. According to her, there is no scarlet fever without angina, but there can be only angina without scarlet fever.

Compliance with the quarantine for scarlet fever or chicken pox is a care for the parents, said Dr. Kraiselska.