2023-11-15 16:33:00
It all started with an ear infection and a sore throat. Hadrien “then started to cough and, little by little, he lost his appetite and he vomited,” says Sabine, the mother of the 7-month-old little one. An appointment was made with the doctor and the diagnosis was quickly made: bronchiolitis, “very probably” caught at daycare.
Hadrien is far from the only baby coughing these days. Ten of the thirteen regions of mainland France are still in the epidemic phase, according to the new weekly report from Public Health France, published this Wednesday. All indicators have risen sharply over the past month, whether SOS Doctors consultations, emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and especially earlier than in each of the pre-Covid years. “It’s tense, bronchiolitis is there this year,” summarizes Professor Christèle Gras Le Guen, pediatrician at Nantes University Hospital and former president of the French Pediatric Society.
The curves “settled” last week, but this is probably explained – as every year – by the school holidays. “It was very calm during All Saints’ Day and it has started to rise once more since the start of the school year, as always,” says Brigitte Virey, president of the National Union of French Pediatricians.
The effective Beyfortus?
Fortunately, we remain far from the exceptional values reached a year ago at the same time of year. “It doesn’t look like last year’s hell, where there were tents in front of some emergency services. The pediatric services are operating at full capacity, but we are still in a situation that we are managing,” indicates Christèle Gras Le Guen. At this stage, the pediatrician has “not heard” of a baby in intensive care having to be transferred from one establishment to another since October. “Usually, this immediately causes a scandal! »
Questioned Tuesday morning on Sud Radio, the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, affirmed that “the indications are positive” because “we have fewer serious forms”. He sees this, “without doubt”, as an impact of the Beyfortus preventive treatment, offered this year to toddlers for the first time.
200,000 doses have been reserved for France this year but the desire of parents to protect their babies has exceeded the government’s expectations, and Beyfortus is now reserved for maternity hospitals. Sabine would also have liked to have her baby immunized, but she might not. “We tried, because as a firefighter I trust the recommendations,” says the young woman, despite everything being relieved to see that her child is doing better.
The fact remains that these “positive indications” are difficult to appear in the figures, if we take a further step back. Bronchiolitis represents around 40% of intensive care admissions for babies under 2 years old, more at this time of year than during the years 2015 to 2020. “We all need to monitor and scrutinize the situation to see if Beyfortus has an impact but, at this stage, it is still much too early to be able to say anything,” concludes Christèle Gras Le Guen.
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