Caregivers usually have thick leather.
But this capacity for resilience, the Covid-19 is putting it to the test in the service of Christian, pulmonologist in a hospital in Val-d'Oise.
A week ago, of the twelve coronavirus patients admitted to his department, four died over the weekend.
"Part of the team is in tears on a regular basis because it is discouraging to see patients die and to have the impression of not having been very useful for them", sighs this experienced doctor.
Like many of his colleagues, Christian has had the impression over the past few weeks that he has seen "younger" cases arrive.
In his department, 80% of patients with Covid-19 were infected with the English variant.
"In sheave, the average age was around 63 years two months ago and it has fallen to 55 years today", details the pulmonologist.
Younger patients
Lucas Reynaud, resuscitation intern at Montélimar hospital (Drôme), noted the arrival in “extremely serious” states of people “younger, with fewer comorbidities”, than during the first wave of spring.
“Two days ago I had a 40-year-old man who was completely choking, but because our intensive care unit was full, we had to move him elsewhere.
His only co-morbidity was moderate but not morbid obesity, and this kind of case was usually rather rare, ”he argues.
The young 30-year-old doctor wonders despite everything: "Is it the English variant that is more aggressive, or should we rather see a larger number of people affected because of its contagiousness, which statistically increases the number of severe cases?
“In fact, in the field, caregivers are struggling to truly correlate the increase in intensive care cases with the wave of the English variant.
READ ALSO>
English variant: why an explosion of the epidemic in March is feared
"We see that the treatments and the support that we put in place since the first wave work less well, patients stay longer in intensive care whereas before they were released after fifteen days, so we suppose that this must be related to the English variant, but how do you know?
»Asks Pablo, a resuscitator nurse at Saint-Louis hospital in Paris.
Still, the profiles are "younger", admits the 36-year-old nurse, "more between 50 and 70 years, with fewer patients over 80 years".
"But the bias is perhaps linked to vaccination or to the fact that the elderly isolate themselves more than at the beginning", advances for his part Mathias Wargon, head of the emergency department of the hospital of Saint-Denis (Seine- St Denis).
"It's very complicated to establish the link with the English variant," adds the doctor.
Especially since we also had young patients in intensive care during the first wave.
"
The puzzle of seats in sheaves
As for the more increased dangerousness of this English mutant, the analyzes carried out across the Channel seem to plead in this direction.
Professor of infectious diseases Anne-Claude Crémieux cites British studies showing a 30 to 70% additional death rate for patients infected with the British variant compared to the original strain.
Coronavirus Newsletter
Update on the Covid-19 epidemic
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
An observation corroborated by a caregiver from the Bordeaux University Hospital (Gironde).
“The death rate seems higher than in the first and second waves,” she confirms.
In particular, we see patients who are more dependent on oxygen and who have more difficulty recovering from the virus.
"
READ ALSO>
Transfers of Covid-19 patients: hospitals on the war footing
"If this variant is more severe, this could explain that a greater proportion of patients end up in intensive care and that the units are currently filling up more quickly, especially in Ile-de-France where the British strain is now in the majority" explains l infectiologist Anne-Claude Crémieux.
In the Paris region, hospitals must in any case face such an influx of patients that finding a place in intensive care has become a real headache.
"It's tense," admits Yann, geriatrician in a hospital in Val-de-Marne.
I had to transfer a 71-year-old patient to whom we ended up finding a sheave bed, but it took 48 hours, ”testifies the doctor.
In his geriatric ward, he estimates that one in four patients with the coronavirus does not recover.