Winter illnesses have not said their last word. After two years of calm, the flu and gastro epidemics seem to be making a comeback. And the health context would not be there for nothing.
In its latest epidemiological bulletin devoted to influenza, Public Health France notes “a continued increase in all influenza indicators”. From now on, all the regions are in an epidemic situation, Corsica having joined the whole of metropolitan France in this eleventh week of the year.
Sharp rise in flu
In one week, the incidence rate of consultations for flu-like illness per 100,000 inhabitants increased by 51%, while visits to the emergency room and hospitalizations for flu-like illness increased by 38%.
On the gastronomic side, the contamination curve in France also shows a sharp increase in recent weeksaccording to data provided by Géodes (Public Health France).
For the health organization, the increase in the indicators of these typical winter diseases can be compared to the drop in barrier gestures and an easing of restrictions.
Decreased immunity and barrier gestures
Indeed, since the return of students to class following the February holidays and since March 14, the date on which the government announced the end of the wearing of compulsory masks.
The rise of the flu epidemic is a phenomenon “very likely favored by the end of winter school holidays and the easing of measures to control the Covid-19 pandemic”, also explained SPF according to the AFP.
Thus, like the previous winter, confinement and barrier gestures had largely contributed to limiting the spread of winter viruses, contamination had fallen sharply. At the same time, immunity once morest these same viruses has also declined, favoring this rebound, currently observed in France.
