2023-10-18 18:22:01
She gave the government a cold sweat last winter. The bronchiolitis epidemic is back and spreading to three new regions, health authorities announced on Wednesday. Last week (from October 9 to 15), activity in community medicine and hospitals “continued to increase for bronchiolitis in children under 2 years old”, observed the Public Health France agency ( SpF) in a weekly report.
In mainland France, the Brittany and Pays-de-la-Loire regions have entered the epidemic phase, bringing the epidemic regions to three, with Ile-de-France, affected a week earlier. Five other regions are in the pre-epidemic phase. In the overseas departments and regions, Guyana has entered the epidemic phase, bringing the regions in the epidemic phase to three, detailed SpF.
Adopt barrier gestures
“In this context, it is necessary to be particularly vigilant and to apply barrier measures, particularly in the presence of children under 2 years old,” recalls the agency. Bronchiolitis, caused primarily by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), causes babies to have difficulty breathing. Generally not serious, it can sometimes lead to visits to the emergency room and hospitalizations.
Last season, the epidemic was on a scale unprecedented in more than a decade, driving tens of thousands of babies into hospitals in persistent crisis and already struggling with Covid and flu.
Vast immunization campaign
From October 9 to 15, 1,950 children under the age of two went to the emergency room for bronchiolitis, and 597 were hospitalized (+15% over one week). But, “at the hospital level, the increases observed remained lower than those of the two previous seasons,” noted SpF.
One of the major issues of the season is to know whether the launch of a vast campaign to immunize babies, via the preventive treatment Beyfortus from the Sanofi laboratory, will have been effective in reducing hospitalizations. Victim of its success, this treatment has now been reserved for maternity hospitals while waiting for new stocks.
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