Orange with Media Services, published on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 at 7:36 p.m.
For the third consecutive week, hospitalizations for bronchiolitis represent “half of hospitalizations following a visit to the emergency room in children under two years old”, underlined the health authorities this Wednesday, November 23 in a weekly report.
The bronchiolitis epidemic is not weakening, despite a shift in hospitals linked to the All Saints school holidays. Visits to the emergency room and hospitalizations for this disease have rebounded in France, “at very high levels”, according to the health authorities this Wednesday, November 23.
For the third consecutive week, hospitalizations for bronchiolitis represent “half of hospitalizations following a visit to the emergency room for children under two years old”, underlined the health agency in its weekly report.
In total, 6,882 children under the age of two went to the emergency room for bronchiolitis in mainland France during the week of November 14 to 20, i.e. a jump of 24% compared to the previous week. Some 2,552 children were eventually hospitalized.
The intensity of the epidemic is more marked in mainland France and Guadeloupe, according to Public Health France. Two weeks ago, the agency reported emergency room visits and hospitalizations at record levels “for more than 10 years”.
ORSAN plan triggered
Common and highly contagious, bronchiolitis causes babies to cough and have difficult, rapid, wheezy breathing. If it is agonizing for young parents, it is mostly benign. In some cases, it may require a visit to the emergency room, or even hospitalization.
This epidemic is hitting pediatric emergencies plunged into a crisis related to unsatisfactory working conditions and a lack of staff. Under pressure, the Minister of Health triggered a national emergency plan a fortnight ago, says ORSAN, planned for exceptional health situations, in order to “further strengthen the means of the ARS (Regional Health Agencies) and allow that the entire hospital can focus on this particularly acute problem today”.
François Braun had previously announced new measures in particular for pediatric services, for a total amount of approximately 400 million euros. With this early and intense epidemic, the “pediatric practices are also in a situation of saturation, alerted Brigitte Virey, president of the National Union of French Pediatricians, last week in the newspaper The world.
“The situation is serious” in Paris hospitals
In the hospitals of Paris (AP-HP), “the situation is serious” because of the “emergency overflow” linked not only to bronchiolitis epidemics, but also to influenza and Covid, as well as a lack of staff which obliges to keep beds closed, according to Rémi Salomon, the president of the medical commission of establishment of the AP-HP, this Wednesday. In addition to Covid-19, there is “bronchiolitis in children, (…) flu in older subjects”, which is “pretty strong this year”, he noted on France Inter.
In a message sent Monday to the directors and heads of departments of the Hôpitaux de Paris, the director general Nicolas Revel and Pr Salomon write that “the adult emergency reception services of the AP-HP have known for several days difficulties” in finding beds “downstream”, which results in the use of a “very high” number of stretchers. “It is necessary to analyze site by site the needs for hospital beds and to proceed, if necessary, to medical deprogramming”, estimate the officials in this letter that AFP has obtained.
