A smaller outbreak than last year. The annual bronchiolitis epidemic, which mainly affects babies, has spread to new French regions in recent days, the public health agency announced on Thursday.
Last week, “bronchiolitis-related activity continued to increase in community medicine and in hospitals among children under two years of age,” summarizes a weekly report from Public Health France.
Centre-Val de Loire and Grand Est have now entered the epidemic phase, joining Brittany, Ile-de-France, Normandy and Pays de la Loire on mainland France. Abroad, three regions (Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana) remain in the epidemic phase.
The impact of Beyfortus
Bronchiolitis, mainly caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), causes babies to have difficulty breathing. Generally it is not serious, sometimes it can cause visits to the emergency room and hospitalizations.
Last year, it was the cause of an unprecedented epidemic in more than ten years, which sent tens of thousands of children to the hospital.
However, the current level of hospitalizations is still lower than last year, although it is still too early to draw conclusions about the face of the epidemic this season.
One of the big doubts is the effect that a new preventive treatment, Beyfortus from Sanofi, will have. Initially offered to all babies born from February onwards, it is currently reserved for maternity hospitals, pending new stock.
Covid in decline
French Public Health has also taken stock of two other diseases: Covid, in a phase of decline, and seasonal flu, still limited to a few sporadic cases in mainland France awaiting the inevitable annual epidemic. Only Réunion, which is in a special situation because it suffers from an inverse climate in the southern hemisphere, is already in the epidemic phase.
The flu vaccination campaign, aimed at the most vulnerable, such as those over 65, “is starting well,” Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau told RTL on Tuesday.
“We are going faster than last year, we are at 1.6 million vaccinated at this time,” he said, calling for people to be vaccinated simultaneously against flu and Covid, for which the two million threshold has just been crossed. of injections. of the current campaign.
Source: BFM TV
