Metropolitan France is beginning to be threatened by an influenza epidemic in the South West, while bronchiolitis continues to spread in all regions, the health authorities announced on Wednesday (December 8th).
Read also Influenza, Covid-19, bronchiolitis: a high-risk winter cocktail
The number of influenza cases, like that of hospitalizations, recorded its third consecutive weekly increase in metropolitan France last week, bringing the Occitanie region into the pre-epidemic phase, summarizes in its bulletin the Public Health France agency.
It is the first metropolitan region to pass in this category, Réunion being already in this case and Mayotte fully hit by the epidemic.
Last winter, confinements and anti-Covid barrier gestures helped block all viruses, including influenza.
The French have been less infected than usual and are therefore less immunized collectively, which raises fears of a stronger epidemic this year, as well as for other diseases such as gastroenteritis.
Bronchiolitis "at a high level"
This phenomenon has already been at work for weeks with bronchiolitis, a disease that mainly strikes babies.
Common and highly contagious, it causes coughing and difficult, rapid, wheezing and wheezing.
Most of the time benign, it may however require a visit to the emergency room, or even hospitalization.
Since November, the bronchiolitis epidemic has hit all regions of the metropolitan area, where it is currently continuing "
at a high level
".
Reunion and Guadeloupe are now added.
Read also Influenza: vaccination is advanced and coupled with the "3rd dose" Covid
In mainland France, last week, "
among the 5577 children under 2 seen in the emergency room for bronchiolitis (...), 5077 (91%) were under one year old and 2015 (36%) were hospitalized
», Details the agency.
Of these, "
1893 (94%) were less than one year old,
" she says.
