Numerous viruses will grip Bulgaria this winter

The winter will bring a "
cocktail of viruses"
which will terrorise the population for another year running, according to Bulgarian mass circulation daily, Trud.

Some of them will be the usual suspects from last season – the notorious Swine Flu or H1N1 virus, which will be accompanied by another virus, the so called Perth virus, identified for the first time in Perth, Australia. According to the tabloid, the aforementioned is "
10 times more lethal than H1N1"
.

Scientists, however, differ slightly. The Bulgarian Academy of Science head of microbiology, Angel Galabov, has said that the virus is "
lighter"
than Swine Flu, and will circulate in the country for a second consecutive year. The Perth H3N2 virus is expected to peak at the end of 2010.

Experts believe that the H1N1 will remain the most widespread influenza. Currently, every 96 out of 10 000 Bulgarians reportedly have acute respiratory diseases and some of these are flu cases, according to the national virology consultant professor Mira Kozhouharova, cited by Trud.

Nice to have something to look forward to :))

coriolanus wrote:

Nice to have something to look forward to :))

Yes coriolanus - this has really settled my mind for a nice peaceful Winter, most of it probably spent in bed coughing like a smokey chimney. For those of us in our "
Twilight Years"
this is something not to be mocked. Here in Turkey things aren't any better, an innocent trip to the shops and someone coughs in your face and that is the start of 2 weeks of hell. The doctors here have a kill or cure attitude, you can come out from the surgery feeling slightly better than you went in, but will be high on the amount of drugs that have been pumped into the system. Never mind whether you needed them all or not, you are going to get them, the first to be administered is a bend over jump job while a syringe is jabbed into your backside, this appears mandatory. Even the man going in to read the electricity meter is lucky to reappear with his trousers still attached to his waist, they are syringe and tablet mad here, a UK physician would go mad if he saw half of the drugs sold openly across the counter in the pharmacy.

But to be fair to the Turks a lot of time is saved by going to the pharmacy as long as you are are compus mentos enough to buy the right drugs. A trip to the doctor will also give a complete read out of your blood count within 4 minutes of walking through the door, a similar test in the UK can take ages with two visits to the doctors, making an appointment with the hospital and then waiting goodness knows how long for a result. So maybe the Turks have it right, a result in minutes, certainly saves a lot of time.

Eric


::

itchyfeet wrote:

But to be fair to the Turks a lot of time is saved by going to the pharmacy as long as you are are compus mentos enough to buy the right drugs. A trip to the doctor will also give a complete read out of your blood count within 4 minutes of walking through the door, a similar test in the UK can take ages with two visits to the doctors, making an appointment with the hospital and then waiting goodness knows how long for a result. So maybe the Turks have it right, a result in minutes, certainly saves a lot of time.

As you know, they are trying to stamp out the OTC for "
dangerous"
drugs OTC in Bulgaria. They are succeeding partly because a lot are just not available now in any case. However, if they are, it's still hit and miss - one pharmacist may refuse to sell you them, but if you go across the road to another outlet, you may well have no trouble at all. Once, a pharmacist refused to fill my prescription because, allegedly, some stamp was missing, so I went down the road and got it filled there.

Of course, you are right about specialists. If they are not all on strike ( ), you can generally get appointments very quickly. None of the waiting around for ages as you might in the UK. X-rays virtually immediately and ditto for blood tests. One of the good things left in Bulgaria for the time being.

We hope to live within 25Ks of the Turkish border and will make trips to top up our medicines, much easier in Turkey. We will have to buy our Visa stamp of course, another 10 pounds contribution each time to the Turkish economy!!!

itchyfeet wrote:

We hope to live within 25Ks of the Turkish border and will make trips to top up our medicines, much easier in Turkey. We will have to buy our Visa stamp of course, another 10 pounds contribution each time to the Turkish economy!!!

Surely you can get some form of multi-entry visa?