2023-05-11 23:05:11
SAINT-MAURICE (Val-de-Marne), May 11, 2023 (APMnews) – The flu epidemic for the 2022-2023 season, characterized by two successive waves, was “exceptionally early and long” and led to more than 110,000 emergency visits and nearly 16,000 hospitalizations, reports Public Health France (SPF) in a preliminary report released on Wednesday.
This epidemic was spread over 19 weeks, from the end of November 2022 to the end of March 2023, compared to an average of 11 weeks since the 2011-2012 season. After a first peak reached at the end of December 2022 (see dispatch from 04/01/2023 at 12:14), an epidemic rebound was observed from the end of January (see dispatch from 02/15/2023 at 13:21).
The flu season “proved to be particularly severe during the first epidemic wave due to the A(H3N2) virus, while the impact of the second epidemic wave due to the B/Victoria virus remained low in the city and in the hospital, illustrating the significant differences that exist between the different influenza viruses in terms of morbidity and mortality”, summarizes SPF.
The health agency also recalls the context of “co-circulation of three respiratory viruses”, with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), responsible for bronchiolitis, and Sars-CoV-2, responsible for Covid-19, which in the whole “caused a strong tension in the supply of care”.
Over the entire epidemic period, nearly 2.1 million consultations for flu-like illness were recorded (Sentinel data) with a consultation rate estimated at 374 per 100,000 inhabitants at the peak of activity at the end of December, as well as 110,956 visits to the emergency room for flu syndrome, of which 15,857 led to hospitalization.
The impact of the flu was “moderate” in city medicine, but “very high” if we consider the data from SOS Médecins, whose share of activity for flu reached 25% at the peak. SPF explains this difference by the fact that “during this period of leave [de fin décembre]it is likely that the use of general medicine care for flu syndrome was decreasing, unlike the use of SOS Médecins”.
At the hospital level, the epidemic had a “very high” impact at the time of the peak, reports SPF, which notes in particular that “the share of cumulative activity of hospitalizations for influenza / flu syndrome among all hospitalizations during the epidemic, all ages combined, has been exceptionally high”.
The agency also points out that if a “marked impact in the hospital was observed in all age groups”, it was “particularly important among 15-64 year olds, yet usually less affected by severe forms of flu than young children and the elderly”.
Around 1,500 flu-related deaths
The impact of the epidemic on mortality was “moderate to high”, with a mention of influenza as “morbid condition having directly caused or contributed to death” for 1% of deaths declared in mainland France and certified electronically on the whole of the flu season, i.e. 1,505 deaths out of 144,504. Among these deaths, the vast majority or 1,324 concerned people aged 65 or over, when 14 were aged under 15 and 167 were between 15 and 64 years old.
SPF notes that the share of influenza among deaths from all causes reached 4.5% at the end of December, i.e. “a level above the average of previous influenza epidemics”. It was “comparable to that reached at the peak of the 2016-17 epidemic and slightly lower than that of the peak of the 2018-19 epidemic”, which had been “two epidemics marked by a majority circulation of the A (H3N2) virus and a strong impact on mortality”.
Influenza vaccination coverage as of February 28 among at-risk people targeted for influenza vaccination was estimated at 51.5%, with 56.2% among those 65 and older and 31.6% among those under 65 at risk of influenza. severe flu.
“These data indicate a slightly lower vaccination coverage than that estimated for the 2021-2022 season (52.6%, with 56.8% among those aged 65 and over and 34.3% among those under 65 with long-term illness). duration) and still insufficient with regard to the objective set by the WHO [Organisation mondiale de la santé] 75% in people at risk”, deplores SPF, recalling the importance of vaccination to protect oneself.
Within medico-social establishments, vaccination coverage once morest influenza was 89% among residents and 30% among staff.
SPF notes that viruses circulating during the influenza season “were predominantly related to vaccine strains present in the Northern Hemisphere 2022-23 vaccine”, but does not provide an estimate of vaccine efficacy.
SPF, preliminary assessment of the 2022-2023 flu epidemic
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