In addition to the Covid-19 pandemic, other epidemics are spreading on French territory in the heart of winter, in particular those of influenza and bronchiolitis.
The flu epidemic continues to accelerate in France, where it has won the Paris region in particular that of bronchiolitis, which mainly affects babies, continues, according to the weekly report of the health agency Public Health France.
Christmas week was marked by a “continued increase in influenza indicators, particularly in children,” the agency summarized on Wednesday, December 29, 2021. Île-de-France is now considered to be in an epidemic phase and thus joins Occitanie, the first metropolitan region to have crossed this threshold the previous week. In Overseas Territories, this is also the case for Mayotte and Reunion.
A large number of regions are also at the preliminary stage, that of the pre-epidemic phase, such as, among others, Brittany and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Normandy and Burgundy-Franche-Comté are still spared.
Last winter, confinements and anti-Covid barrier gestures had helped block all viruses, including influenza.
More epidemics than in 2020
The French have been less infected than usual and are therefore less immunized collectively, which raises fears of a stronger epidemic this year, as well as for other diseases such as gastroenteritis. This has already been the case for several weeks with bronchiolitis, a disease that mainly affects babies.
Bronchiolitis, which is common and highly contagious, causes coughing and difficult, rapid, wheezing and wheezing. Most of the time benign, it may however require a visit to the emergency room, or even hospitalization. Last week, all of the metropolitan areas were still hit by this epidemic, a situation that has been going on since early November.
However, there has been “a decrease in emergency room visits (and) hospitalizations,” notes Public Health France. A total of 3,824 children under the age of two went to the emergency room with bronchiolitis last week, and a large third were hospitalized.