The weekly report on acute respiratory infections drawn up by Public Health reveals that Normandy is facing a pre-epidemic of bronchiolitis. A situation that requires precautions given the contagiousness of this disease, which mainly affects infants.
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The fall and winter seasons are often synonymous with the return of infectious diseases. And Normandy is not spared. Cases of bronchiolitis, a respiratory infection of viral origin, are on the rise in the region during the week of November 4 to 10, 2024, as revealed by the weekly report on acute respiratory infections published by Public Health.
Normandy is classified in situation “pre-epidemic” for bronchiolitis at the beginning of November.
This disease mainly affects babies and is characterized by coughing and rapid, wheezing breathing.
“Bronchiolitis usually spreads in epidemic form at the end of the year. This is not an unusual situation” assures the Normandy Regional Health Agency, which however specifies that the disease “is very contagious.which may be limited.
To avoid reaching the epidemic stage in the region, the ARS recommends respecting barrier gestures. Especially since adults or older children, who can carry the virus without suffering any signs of the disease, can very easily transmit bronchiolitis to other more fragile people, particularly infants.
Many people carry the virus and are contagious without knowing it. The virus spreads easily from person to person through saliva, coughs and sneezes, and it can stay on hands and objects
Normandy Regional Health Agency
To reduce the risk of bronchiolitis, it is important:
- wash your hands for 30 seconds with soap and water
- avoid taking your child into confined public places
- to regularly ventilate your entire home
- avoid kissing your baby on the face and hands
Nationally, Île-de-France is already in an epidemic situation for bronchiolitis, while Brittany and Hauts-de-France are the only two other regions in a pre-epidemic.
According to figures communicated by Public Health, 1,659 children under 2 years old went to the emergency room for cases of bronchiolitis between November 4 and 10 in France. And 458 of them, almost all babies under the age of one, were hospitalized.
This 2024 season is however 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.
Beyfortus had already been the subject of an immunization campaign last year and studies agree to conclude that it limited the hospitalization of babies in France and in the few other countries where it was tested.
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