2023-11-10 05:45:01
Particularly intense and worrying last year, bronchiolitis has resurfaced for a few days at the end of 2023. Occitanie has just entered the “epidemic phase” faced with increasing indicators according to the latest report from Public Health France.
Will bronchiolitis affect hundreds of babies like it did last year? The indicators are in any case not very reassuring. Occitanie has just passed into “epidemic phase“like other regions. According to the latest Public Health France report which measures the period from November 30 to 5, “bronchiolitis activity is still increasing“.
This is particularly the case in community medicine and in hospitals for children under two years old. According to data collected by Santé Publique France, approximately 10% of the 8,139 procedures carried out by SOS Médecins on children under the age of two are linked to bronchiolitis.
Another relevant figure for the same age group and the same period: hospitalizations for bronchiolitis increased by 5.3% following a visit to the emergency room compared to the previous week. The vast majority of these hospitalized patients (95%) are less than one year old.
These indicators remain well below the level reached last year. From November 2022, the epidemic arrived early and gradually, taking hospitals by surprise which had to free up beds to accommodate these patients.
Géraldine Labouret, pneumopediatrician and head of the pediatric pneumoallergology department at the Purpan University Hospital at the children’s hospital, talks regarding “12 to 15 passages per day” babies in the service, remembering that “8 out of 10 visits result in hospitalization.” For the doctor, the current epidemic phase is not a surprise. “The predominant RSV virus returns every year, until January and February”she explains. The epidemic will be a little less violent than last year, but it remains a difficult period for caregivers. Parents are flocking to the emergency room, things are tense in the departments. We still anticipated this year.”
In this context, the pneumopediatrician advises “keep babies at home, warm”as well as avoiding letting them meet too many people and especially “wash your hands well”.
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