In the week ending December 8, three new regions in France, Hauts-de-France, Normandy and Bourgogne-France-Comté, entered into an epidemic in turn.
The rest of the metropolis should soon follow, because almost all the other regions – except Corsica – are in the so-called pre-epidemic phase. Overseas, Martinique is also in pre-epidemic.
“Influenza/influenza syndrome indicators were sharply increasing in (city) medicine and in hospitals,” summarized the health agency in its weekly bulletin on acute respiratory infections.
And “this increase concerned all age groups but more particularly those under 15,” she said.
While vaccination, particularly of the most vulnerable, appears to be lagging behind compared to previous years, Public Health France reaffirms that this “remains the best way to protect yourself against influenza and COVID-19, in particular serious forms of these diseases.
This vaccination campaign also concerns Covid, for the moment at its lowest but with an increasing level of circulation of the virus in wastewater compared to previous weeks.
“In view of the end-of-year gatherings, there is still time to get vaccinated,” insists the agency, two weeks after the call from health authorities for “increased mobilization”.
For bronchiolitis, which mainly affects babies, all metropolitan regions, except Corsica, are in the epidemic phase.
If the indicators were increasing in the week ending December 8, they remain at “a level lower than that observed during the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period,” noted Public Health France.
The level of intensity for bronchiolitis thus remains “low in a hospital environment”, according to the agency.
Cases of bronchiolitis were rare in 2020-2021, in a context marked by multiple confinements, before rebounding strongly the following three seasons.
Overseas, the bronchiolitis epidemic now also affects Mayotte, which has been added to Guyana, Guadeloupe and Martinique.
This season is marked by the deployment of two preventive treatments, Beyfortus from AstraZeneca and Sanofi – an antibody given directly to babies – and Abrysvo from Pfizer – a vaccine administered before birth to pregnant women.
