The seasonal flu epidemic has now been declared in France, affecting Brittany and Normandy, health authorities announced on Wednesday, as the country already faces waves of bronchiolitis and Covid-19.
“Brittany and Normandy have entered an epidemic,” France’s public health agency announced in a report from last week to November 27. Abroad, the flu epidemic was already affecting Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion.
Other regions are also in the “pre-epidemic” phase. This is the case in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Centre-Val de Loire, Grand Est, Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
an early arrival
The arrival of the flu epidemic is quite early this year, particularly compared to the previous season, when it peaked very late, in early spring. Above all, it occurs when two respiratory epidemics are already affecting the country: Covid, which has rebounded in recent days, and bronchiolitis, at the origin of an outbreak in babies, unprecedented for ten years.
For the flu, the arrival of the epidemic translates into a sharp increase in doctor visits, which have shot up in half since last week throughout the metropolis. Also, the situation begins to manifest itself in the hospital. Emergency room visits for flu-like illnesses have also increased by half.
At the moment, the level of serious cases and deaths, however, remains limited, with around twenty patients in intensive care and three deaths, the health authorities specify. However, this rapid arrival of the flu makes it all the more urgent to vaccinate people at risk, especially everyone over 65, as the campaign struggles to get off the ground.
It is “important that people at risk get a flu shot without delay,” insisted Public Health France.
Source: BFM TV
