AFP, published on Monday, November 28, 2022 at 1:28 p.m.
The peak of the bronchiolitis epidemic is expected “towards the end of the week”, the union of liberal pediatricians said on Monday, calling for a strengthening of barrier gestures to counter this disease, which is generally mild but which can turn out to be serious. in newborns.
“It’s going up, we expect the peak towards the end of the week,” said AFP Dr. Brigitte Virey, president of the National Union of French Pediatricians (SNPF), who evokes “a substantial workload in the cabinets”.
“We have increased our consultation ranges to be able to cope and take everyone”, including sometimes on Sundays, added the head of the union, established with some 2,600 city pediatricians. A situation all the more worrying as it “will last” and might combine with other epidemics, such as influenza and gastroenteritis, underlines Dr. Virey.
Ventilation of the premises, washing of hands, wearing of a mask when approaching a newborn, limitation of frequentation of public places with a toddler… “We must resume barrier measures, it is essential to protect babies”, hammered the pediatrician.
Professor Rémi Salomon, from the Necker hospital in Paris, launched the same appeal on Sunday evening on Twitter, given the “extremely tense situation in the emergency rooms and pediatric departments”: “Everything we can do to avoid the bronchiolitis needs to be done, it’s really super important!”
In this context, the SNPF did not join the strike called Thursday and Friday by several organizations of liberal doctors to obtain an increase in consultation rates.
“This bronchiolitis is severe, it affects toddlers: we are not going to leave them and tell parents + we are on strike, manage +. It is not possible”, estimated Dr. Virey.
“Perhaps some will appear as strikers while working,” continued the manager, believing that city pediatricians suffer “a lack of intellectual and financial recognition of what they do”.
For the union official, it would also be necessary to “double the number of pediatricians in training”, which are “between 320 and 330 this year”.
For this, “we must make the profession attractive. But what is happening at the moment – a degraded way of working to see all the children – is a little scary for young people”, notes Dr. Virey.