2023-09-20 16:34:35
Emergency visits, hospitalizations, and consultations linked to bronchiolitis in infants are “at a low level” but in “augmentation“, according to the first weekly bulletin of the epidemic season, published Wednesday by Public Health France.
“Activity linked to bronchiolitis in children under two years of age is at a low level in mainland France as well as in the overseas departments and regions.“, observed the health agency.
But the week of September 11 to 17 experienced “an increase in activity linked to bronchiolitis in mainland France (…) for medical procedures SOS doctors, for visits to the emergency room as well as for hospitalizations following visits to the emergency room for bronchiolitis“, she noted.
A total of 745 children under 2 years old (+84% over one week) were seen in the emergency room for bronchiolitis, and a third of them were hospitalized, mainly babies under one year old.
On the SOS Médecins side, 181 consultations linked to this viral infection were counted (+115% in one week).
These increases are “comparable to those observed in the two years preceding the same period“, specified SpF.
The Director General of Public Health France, Caroline Semaille, reported Tuesday during a press conference, “a small activity that resumes“between the end of August and the beginning of September.
“It’s low but you have to be very careful“, she insisted, referring to “a situation probably quite comparable to what we observed last year“.
Bronchiolitis, mainly caused by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), primarily affects infants and causes breathing difficulties. Very common, this infection is generally not serious, but can sometimes become complicated and lead to hospitalization.
Last season, the epidemic was on a scale unprecedented in more than a decade, driving tens of thousands of babies into hospitals in persistent crisis and already struggling with Covid and flu.
This year, a novelty is raising the hopes of health authorities: a preventive anti-RSV treatment developed by the French pharmaceutical group Sanofi, Beyfortus (nirvésimab), which works on the basis of a directly injected antibody – and not a vaccine .
The Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau welcomed a “major breakthrough“able to avoid,”indirectly“, to overload hospitals, and also recalled the “simple gestures” to avoid transmission (hand washing, ventilation, avoidance of enclosed public places, etc.).
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