2024-01-09 15:31:18
Many Italian hospitals are currently facing saturation of their emergency services. If Covid-19 contributes in part, health authorities attribute this “difficult situation” primarily to the seasonal flu epidemic. Should we worry regarding this worrying health situation in France?
“Odd”. This is the term used by several observers to describe the origin of the health situation facing many Italian hospitals at the start of the year. In more detail, it is a question of“overcrowding in hospitals and very strong pressure on emergency services”, according to Fabio de Laco, president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine and Emergency Care (Simeu).
As a benchmark, according to health authorities, in the Rome region, more than 1,100 patients are waiting to be admitted to care, while in Milan, traditional hospital admissions had to be suspended to free up beds. . If Covid-19 partly explains this influx of patients, the latter incriminate “other viruses” causing respiratory infections, starting with seasonal flu, which would be particularly virulent this winter.
Should we be worried?
“Something very strange is happening in Italy”, analyzes Eric Feigl-Ding, the American epidemiologist, on the social network X, formerly Twitter. “Italian scientists are baffled by the increase in hospital emergencies,” he continues, evoking a “flu epidemic” booming. The latter adds that the latter “is regarding to get worse in Italy”, and that she “has not yet reached its peak for this winter.”
Fact, “the influenza epidemic curve showed an incidence value never reached during previous seasons”, specifies the latest epidemiological bulletin from the Italian Higher Institute of Health.
Something very weird is happening in Italy. Italian scientists are baffled at hospital ER surge—even calling it “strange” @WRicciardi . Trying to track down how bad it is. “Influenza-like illness” is surging. Italy’s MOH extends obligation to wear masks in hospitals. Watching ???? https://t.co/PRQbZ2IfBg — Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 3, 2024
Should we be worried regarding this situation among our neighbors? Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches in Hauts-de-Seine, wants to be reassuring, reminding firstly that “the flu is a winter illness that we know well, and that we arrive in the meteorological winter”. The scientist further emphasizes the post-pandemic context where “things are balancing out, where Covid has found its place, less strong than over the last three years, and each of the infectious agents is seeking to make its place”.
According to him, the convergence of several factors helps explain the situation facing Italian hospitals, including a lack of anticipation of the return of old-time illnesses which is therefore not “not a French exception” et “the threat of an eroding healthcare system”.
“We forget the collateral benefit of barrier gestures”
On the other hand, “vaccination coverage in Italy is not up to par like everywhere in Europe with the exception of the United Kingdom”. And this despite the fact that “we have the tools to” notably for three years with the high dose vaccine, Efluelda (Sanofi) “which allows for greater vaccine effectiveness” Yet “a little past the ace”.
Then, he believes, barrier gestures were abandoned in Italy as elsewhere, including in France. “We are in a post-pandemic era and we are forgetting the collateral benefit of barrier gestures which allowed us to forget these old-fashioned diseases like the flu during the pandemic,” he explains. “If we want to popularize, when the vaccines once morest Covid saw the light of day, we trusted them a little too much to the detriment of barrier gestures, then we realized that the best protection was vaccination coupled with barrier gestures and what we observe today is that when we lifted barrier gestures, finally people stopped being vaccinated too. he analyzes.
What regarding a strain that escapes vaccines?
However, he adds, we cannot “attribute everything to post-Covid and barrier gestures” car “the flu was rampant before the Covid pandemic”with epidemic seasons more intense than others such as in 2017 characterized by a co-circulation of influenza A and influenza B, also observed in 2023. As a reminder, if it happens that several influenza viruses add up where one following another during the same epidemic season, each winter it is mainly influenza A which is rampant in France and Europe, and more precisely of the H1N1 type. “That is to say the strain of 2009 so a priori nothing new, and we can bet that it is the one which is still circulating this winter in Italy”, he adds, indicating that “the scenarios are completely homogeneous in Europe”.
“The flu vaccine is effective once morest this predominant strain,” he insists, recalling that the “flu vaccine is a tetravalent vaccine updated annually once morest four strains of influenza virus.” What regarding a strain that would partially escape vaccines, as has already been seen in the past? “I have not heard of this notion in Italy, however it will be interesting to know what the predominant strain is and if the serotype is well covered by the vaccine”reassures Benjamin Davido.
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“Even if there were a serotype poorly covered by the vaccine this year, there is nothing unusual regarding it and if this is the case there is only one recipe, it is the return of barrier gestures particularly in risky situations such as in confined places where it is recommended to wear the mask once more”, he insists.
Finally, the scientist would like to emphasize the situation in Italian hospitals, “we know that the populations in Italy, and in southern Europe in general, are older and therefore more likely to develop serious forms in the event of respiratory infection.”
Audrey LE GUELLEC
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