2023-09-28 12:46:20
When Marine’s second child caught bronchiolitis three years ago, “It was hard.” He was not hospitalized, but “we were afraid it would get worse”says this 27-year-old childcare assistant (who does not wish to give her last name, like all the people mentioned by their first name), Friday September 22 at the Antoine-Béclère hospital in Clamart (Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, AP-HP), in Hauts-de-Seine.
Three days earlier, Marine gave birth to her youngest, Maël. So, for this one, the mother did not hesitate to administer nirsevimab, a new preventive treatment for bronchiolitis available since September 15 in hospitals and pharmacies. A prick in the thigh, an occasional cry, and Maël moved on to the more joyful discoveries of existence.
In anticipation of the epidemic season, Public Health France (SPF) ordered 200,000 doses of this monoclonal antibody, marketed under the name Beyfortus by Sanofi and AstraZeneca, which makes it possible to reduce the number of hospitalizations for severe form of bronchiolitis, according to the Harmonie clinical trial. This infection of the small bronchi, mainly due to the respiratory syncytial virus, affects nearly a third of children under 2 years old each year, according to Public Health France, or 480,000 cases. It kills in less than 1% of cases, but it caused more than 26,000 hospitalizations of children under 2 years old during the 2022-2023 epidemic season, according to SPF.
In this context, health authorities are counting on Beyfortus to reduce the pressure that the disease exerts each winter on hospitals and their staff. The parents apparently respond. So much so that the government established priorities by deciding, Tuesday, September 26, to prioritize babies still in the maternity ward, who are most at risk of developing serious forms of bronchiolitis.
Nirsevimab is not a vaccine
Thus, doses of 50 milligrams, intended for children weighing less than 5 kilos, are no longer available in community pharmacies. Béclère hospital is not affected by this restriction, and its chief pharmacist, Sandrine Roy, continues to count “impatiently” of the 136 doses it ordered for its first restock, scheduled for Friday.
A bit like Marine, Renata, a 38-year-old pharmacist, was “immediately enthusiastic”. Her daughter Lara, born September 18, has a 22-month-old big brother who goes to daycare, with children who can ” to have a running nose “. For Lara, “we said to ourselves that the treatment could be interesting. We saw the posters in the hospital, they explained to us”, relates Renata. The father, Stefan, 44, a business economist, was not very reassured at first. Not about the product, he clarifies, but about the injection. Her daughter didn’t even cry.
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