Some important health news you might have missed– alarming rise in tuberculosis among children in Europe, changes in Bulgarian healthcare, and medical breakthroughs around the world.
In the following lines, part of the Healthcare News column, we will share some alarming statistics about tuberculosis among children, as well as some changes in Bulgarian healthcare concerning our younger readers and especially their parents.
Tuberculosis concern
On March 24 (World Tuberculosis Day), WHO raised an alert about an increase in cases of childhood tuberculosis in large parts of the EU. In 2023, in the WHO European region, children under 15 years represented 4.3% of new tuberculosis cases – 10% more than the previous year. This trend continued in the past 2024 as well.
This rise, the third consecutive year of increase, suggests that the transmission of the infection continues. Health experts are calling for urgent public health measures to contain the trend.
We from the Dr. GoGo team remind you that the tuberculosis vaccine is part of the mandatory immunization calendar of the Republic of Bulgaria and many other countries in the European Union.
Progress against this treatable disease is fragile and requires constant efforts, warned WHO Europe director Hans Kluge.
Free medicine for children
Good news at home – Parliament has finally passed the NHIF budget for 2025, which states that all children up to 7 years of age will have the right to free prescription medicine.
The allocated funds for healthcare reach a record 9.5 billion BGN, with increased funding for hospital care and medications. Although the debates were heated (to put it mildly – for those of us following the discussions), the result is positive for families – a relief to their budget and better access to treatment for the youngest members of society. The measure also aims for prevention – parents not to delay treatment because of the cost of medication. Thus, both the number of children with complications due to delayed treatment and the number of children requiring hospital care as a result of those complications are reduced.
Medical breakthrough – pig-to-human transplant
A historic achievement in transplantology was announced in recent days. Chinese doctors successfully transplanted a pig liver into a human – the first such case in the world. This marks a new stage in the field of transplantology.
The patient was brain-dead, and the used organ – genetically modified to reduce the risk of rejection. Impressively, the transplanted liver functioned normally for 10 days (produced bile and maintained circulation), demonstrating that such xenotransplantations (from other biological species) are possible.
Scientists hope in the future this approach will help patients with liver failure – potentially a solution to the shortage of donor organs. Of course, more studies are needed for long-term results, but this operation is a step forward and a ray of hope for the thousands on the waiting lists for liver transplantation, and why not other organs too.
Final thoughts
In this issue of the news, we saw that not all news is good, but we from the drgogo.bg team intend to deliver the information sincerely – the good with the bad. So that there are no misled people and so that we don’t think everything in our world is rosy. And we don’t do it to scare the audience – on the contrary – we do it so that together we can turn the negative news into positive.
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