It has been almost ten days since we can no longer go out in bars in Lille where young people have their habits without hearing about the famous “Lille disease”. And when you search for that phrase on Twitter, you realize that the rumor has spread at lightning speed. Real illness or false rumor? In fact, there is a bit of both, but the coronavirus has nothing to do with it.
“I escaped the Covid for a year and a half only to end up being sick like something else because of ” Lille disease ””, deplores Alba. “Lille’s disease I can no longer brother I do that cough”, assures Narcisse. “Lille disease is no joke, one week I’m at the end of the line, it’s getting worse and worse,” adds Adé. There are dozens of tweets like this. Serious, and others less, which evoke, mockingly, the “Masséna variant” or the “Solferino variant”, places known to students to party.
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The symptoms described by the victims of this mysterious illness are generally the same: cough, fever, body aches… “We were indeed contacted by a general practitioner who had noticed an increase in this type of pathologies which he described as syndromes. flu-like ”, recognizes the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Hauts-de-France, requested by 20 minutes. When in doubt, the patients were screened for Covid-19 and the tests were negative. “The coronavirus has been ruled out, but this is an opportunity for us to remind people of the importance of barrier gestures to also fight against winter diseases”, continues the ARS.
For the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Lille, nothing alarming either: “The ” autumnal viruses ” are returning even though the population has a low level of immune defenses since these viruses have not manifested themselves, or are very little, last year, thanks to barrier gestures ”, we explain to 20 minutes. The CHU believes that the relaxation of barrier gestures observed with the appearance of the health pass partly explains the transmission of these autumn viruses.
Epidemiological monitoring is provided by Public Health France and, on this side too, there is nothing to be alarmed about. “This ” Lille disease ” is really just a rumor, there is no particular surveillance in place and this will not be the subject of any specific publication on our side,” insists the organization. . For Public Health France, “Lille disease” is nothing other than cases of “acute respiratory infections” whose occurrence during this period is not abnormal. The ARS also ensures that other regions are also affected.