After a start to the year marked by a lull, the flu epidemic has continued to rebound in recent days.
Last week recorded, in mainland France, a “rebound in the epidemic with an increase in flu indicators in town and in hospital in all age groups”, according to a weekly report from Public Health France.
Overseas, it continues in Guyana and the West Indies.
The flu epidemic, which had started early in France, had experienced a decline in January.
But for two weeks, it has started again and, in mainland France, only Normandy and Hauts-de-France appear in the “post-epidemic” phase during which the end of the epidemic is possible in the short term.
Brittany, in particular, is in the full epidemic phase after having started to emerge from it in the previous weeks.
📈 The rebound of the #flu epidemic is confirmed, with indicators on the rise again "in all age groups" (while remaining relatively low).
Type B viruses are progressing, Brittany is returning to the epidemic phase.
The detail ⤵️
1/9https://t.co/UgYoe6CQ8W pic.twitter.com/kFgGXBwMTF
— Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) February 8, 2023
The epidemic was relaunched in particular by the expansion of a new strain, called type B, even if the first, type A, remains present.
Declining bronchiolitis
The type B virus “can quite reinfect people who have already had type A flu”, infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido explained to AFP last week.
Read alsoInfluenza: why the epidemic is so violent this winter
This winter, the flu contributed to an unusual “triple epidemic” situation, with several waves of Covid as well as a particularly intense outbreak of bronchiolitis in babies.
On the latter level, however, the situation continues to improve.
Bronchiolitis, in decline since the end of December, continued to decline throughout France.
The epidemic ended in particular in several regions: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Martinique and Pays de la Loire.