That's it, infant bronchiolitis is well established.
Apart from Brittany - which is all the same in a pre-pandemic situation - and Corsica, escaping for the moment the warning signals, the whole of the territory is now concerned by this viral infection "very contagious" of the bronchi, the more often benign, but which can prove fatal for the youngest.
[#Bronchiolitis] Weekly bulletin of October 20
➡️ Continuation of the sharp and early increase in monitoring indicators for bronchiolitis in children under 2 years of age
👉 To consult the bulletin https://t.co/tT7p0WMPpO pic.twitter .com / fJFDcFnffd
- SantépubliqueFrance (@SantePubliqueFr) October 20, 2021
Public Health France, in its last bulletin published on Wednesday, indeed declared that nine new regions had entered an epidemic phase: Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Center-Val-de-Loire, Hauts -de-France, Normandy, New Aquitaine, Occitanie, Pays de la Loire and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur.
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A sharp rise in epidemic alert signals, while only two regions, Grand-Est and Île-de-France, were placed in red vigilance last week.
Overseas, only Guyana is now affected by the virus, the alert having been raised in Mayotte, back in the green.
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Periods of bronchiolitis are usually not particularly worrying for specialists.
But this year, the virus appeared particularly early and specialists, after a white season marked by the absence of seasonal flu and other winter viruses last year, are worried about a potential lack of immune defenses within the breast. of the population and of the youngest, who are particularly exposed to it (almost two thirds of infants catch it each year).
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A concern confirmed by the figures, with a level of passages "higher than the previous three years for bronchiolitis", according to Public Health France.
Thus, from October 11 to 17, 2,377 children under the age of two were seen in the emergency room for bronchiolitis.
Of these, 2,131 (90%) were less than one year old and 799 (34%) were hospitalized.
This corresponds to a 33% increase in emergency room visits and 24% in hospitalizations.