The flu vaccination rate of the French population is lower this season than in previous years. According to Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau, these “mediocre” figures are “worrying.”
“We need a start. Otherwise, it will be the hospitals and the most vulnerable who will pay a high price for all this,” the minister wrote this Friday on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
In fact, the French are less vaccinated at this stage of the vaccination campaign, which began on October 17, 2023 (the previous one began on October 18, 2022), than after as many days of the campaign in previous years, while than the seasonal period. The flu usually starts in November and lasts until April.
6% fewer vaccinated between 2022 and 2023
According to figures provided by Le Parisien, from the IQVIA France company that uses data reported by a panel of pharmacies, pharmacists had distributed 8.3 million doses until November 28, compared to 8.9 in the same period in 2022. , a drop of around 6%. .
The vaccination campaign is aimed as usual at people aged 65 or older and at the youngest (2 years and older, for the first time this year) with a chronic illness, immunosuppressed, severely obese or pregnant, because they run the risk of becoming seriously ill.
“Vaccination of those around these vulnerable people is also recommended, including professionals in the medical and social sectors,” indicates the Ministry of Health in a specific statement published on the occasion of the launch of the campaign. In total, 19 million people meet the criteria to be vaccinated.
As Le Parisien points out, at this point in 2022, 56% of people over 65 and 32% of younger adults at risk had already been vaccinated in France, which represents full coverage of people at risk of the 51.5% in total, according to ministry figures.
More than 110,000 hospitalizations in 2022-2023
For the 2022-2023 season, the Oscour network recorded 110,918 emergency room visits for flu or flu-like illnesses, followed by 15,828 hospitalizations, two highest values since 2017. The winter of 2022-2023 was marked by a triple epidemic of bronchiolitis-Covid-19-fluthe effects of which have accumulated and caused significant pressure on the provision of health services and high excess mortality.
In its latest epidemic update, Public Health France specified that flu indicators were “increased slightly in France with the transition to the pre-epidemic phase of the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Ile-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur” and that “this increasing trend was most marked in community medicine and affected all age groups, but especially those under 15 years of age.
Source: BFM TV
