13‑year‑old stabbed in chest stable but still life‑threatening, says health minister
Minister Sasho Klekovski: heart movement is normal but the child remains in danger; suspect detained and brother placed with social services.
A 13-year-old boy who was stabbed in the chest is stable but remains in a life-threatening condition, North Macedonia's Minister of Health, Sasho Klekovski, said on Thursday.
“The latest information, unfortunately, is from yesterday. Stable, still in a life‑threatening condition. The good side — the kinetics — the movement of the heart is fine, however, he is still in life‑threatening danger,” Klekovski said in response to reporters at a press conference.
Detentions and social services
Authorities have detained a 19‑year‑old suspect in connection with the stabbing; the suspect’s brother has been placed under the care of social services, while the wounded boy remains under treatment at a clinic.
At the same briefing, Klekovski warned about the risk of a measles outbreak, noting that only 62 percent of schoolchildren are vaccinated — a level he described as insufficient for herd immunity.
“Basically, the Institute of Public Health has carried out all the necessary information activities, but you know that basically we have, especially in some urban areas, strong opposition to vaccination. And we must look a bit more analytically at how to overcome that, because it makes no sense that, so to speak, in less developed areas we have a very high coverage, including with less accepted vaccines like HPV, while in the most developed communities, where education is at the highest level, we have the lowest coverage. And that is a challenge we must face more analytically and systematically,” he said.
Klekovski also announced imminent changes to access rules for people with cystic fibrosis who may receive the drug Trikafta. “Very soon there will be changes there, we will publish them. I expect that by the end of the month there will be new published protocols and we will have a new coverage both by age group and by genetic variations,” he explained, and confirmed plans for children over two years of age to become eligible for Trikafta under the upcoming changes.
Photo: press material from the event
