AROUND 600 PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM SMALLPOX IN SEVEN MUNICIPALITIES OF PCINJ DISTRICT

18. May 2018.

Bujanovac, Presevo - Of the seven municipalities of the Pcinj district, an outbreak of smallpox was declared in six of them, while around 600 cases of people infected with smallpox had been recorded until then, said Sladjan Stankovic, an epidemiologist at the Institute of Public Health in Vranje.

He said that Trgoviste, in which there are currently 15 patients, was the last municipality in which an epidemic of measles was declared. Three of those smallpox patients are health workers, while around five new cases of measles are daily reported to the Institute of Public Health in Vranje.

"Measles were transferred to Trgoviste from Vranje, where a health worker had been in contact with an infected person. So far, an epidemic of measles in the Pcinj district has not been declared only in Bosilegrad, where only one case of the disease has been recorded,” Mr. Stankovic said.

He noted that the majority of smallpox patients were in the municipalities of Bujanovac and Surdulica, then in Presevo and Vranje, while the smallest number of cases were in the municipalities of Vladicin Han and Trgoviste, as well as that the measles epidemics had been declared in all of those municipalities.

“When it comes to the number of people suffering from measles, the Pcinj district is in third place in Serbia, after Belgrade and Nis, but it is in the first place if we take into account the number of patients in relation to the population. There is a tendency for the epidemic of measles to subside in all of Serbia, except in the Pcinj district, where new cases are reported on a daily basis,” Mr. Stankovic said.

Source: “Beta” news agency and Coordination Body