AFP, published on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at 3:21 p.m.
The flu epidemic remains active in many French regions, particularly in the south and in Île-de-France, where it continues to progress, but is flowing back into Hauts-de-France and Normandy, according to the weekly health report. public France published on Wednesday.
During the sixth week of the year, “the evolution of influenza activity remained variable depending on the region”, notes the health agency in a press release.
“Influenza and flu-like syndrome indicators were on the increase in 6 regions: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Brittany, Île-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur”, she specifies. . “On the other hand, a drop in indicators was observed this week in Hauts-de-France and Normandy”.
“The indicators were stable in the other” metropolitan regions, according to Public Health France.
In the overseas territories, only Guyana is in an ascending phase of the epidemic.
The previous winter, confinements and anti-Covid measures had blocked the circulation of other viruses, such as the flu.
The French have been less infected than usual and are therefore less immunized collectively, which favors a resumption of the epidemic this winter.
As anti-Covid restrictions are lifted, the health agency warns that “any relaxation of control measures following the fifth wave of Covid-19 might result in an intensification of influenza activity”.
Bronchiolitis, which mainly affects infants, has given rise to an epidemic that is now over in all regions of mainland France.
Public Health France also observed a “continued decline in emergency visits and hospitalizations following emergency visits for bronchiolitis in children under two years of age”.