Outbreak Diary: Chronicles of an Epidemic Journal by Christian Lehmann

2023-09-21 17:42:42

Outbreak Diary

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Epidemic journal, by Christian LehmanndossierChristian Lehmann is a doctor and writer. For “Libération”, he chronicles a society long affected by the coronavirus. Today, he returns to a new preventive treatment for certain bronchiolitis.

Born prematurely at seven and a half months, my son was six days old when he was infected with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) responsible for bronchiolitis, in the neonatal department of the Poissy hospital, where he then spent several weeks in intensive care without knowing if he would survive. I obviously remember it like it was yesterday. The endless days and nights, the anguish, the guilt of not having listened better to my wife who had been worried regarding her breathing since the fourth day and who the doctors in the department treated behind her back as hysterical.

But I think what I will never forget is the confused excuse from the head of the pediatrics department, who explained to me that the team had been surprised by the early start of the bronchiolitis epidemic at this time. year 1996, and detailed the protocols in the service to me. All infants were weighed daily in the same scale, several times a day but, while RSV is transmissible by contact, it was only cleaned at each weighing once the epidemic was declared. Twenty-six years later, any resemblance to the current grotesque situation is unfortunately not accidental.

A quarter of a century later, while summer is not even over, ENT and respiratory infections are exploding, hospitalizations are picking up once more, saturating certain services, and the government is announcing a new preventive injectable treatment for RSV bronchiolitis. . 1

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#Covid #treatment #bronchiolitis #contradictory #injunctions #ministerial #visits #propaganda #Libération

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