These acute respiratory infections are circulating very actively on the eve of the end-of-year holidays.
Viruses lie in wait as the end-of-year holidays approach. All indicators are on the rise regarding acute respiratory infections, and four regions have gone into red “epidemic” alert for influenza: Occitanie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne Franche-Comté and Grand-Est. They join Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur at this stage.
Five regions are still in the “pre-epidemic” phase: Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Centre-Val-de-Loire, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Pays-de-la-Loire. “The indicators of influenza/flu syndrome were increasing in community medicine and in hospitals in all age groups,” notes Public Health France in its latest bulletin published Thursday December 21, 2023.
Particularly for those under 15, visits to hospital for reasons of flu or flu-like illness were increasing in mid-December. “The share of hospitalizations after passage was also increasing in all age groups.”
The situation in France regarding flu, bronchiolitis and Covid-19.
6,000 children affected by bronchiolitis in emergency rooms
All departments of mainland France remain on red alert level for bronchiolitis. Public Health France notes that the “peak” would have been reached the week of November 27 to December 3, “however the epidemic continues in all regions at a high level”.
Very young people are always very concerned. There were 6,040 children under 2 years old who went to the emergency room for cases of bronchiolitis during the week of December 11 to 17, 89% of whom were under 1 year old. There were 1,951 hospitalized. That same week, 7,485 medical procedures were carried out by SOS Médecins for children under 2 years old, including more than 700 for cases of bronchiolitis.
38 children under 2 years old were hospitalized until the intensive care unit after a trip to the emergency room.
High circulation of Covid-19
Covid-19 is circulating very actively in the Grand-Est, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and PACA regions. Incidence rates are particularly high in Bas-Rhin (191 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), Haut-Rhin (167 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), Moselle (160 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) and Meuse (165 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) when we know that the alert threshold was set at 50 at the height of the crisis in 2020.
But while the virus has been on a constant rise since October, Public Health France notes that the positivity rate is decreasing and that “syndromic indicators are stable in the city and in the hospital”. If Covid-19 will be present during the holidays, it could disappear again in the weeks to follow.
Here is the situation, on a map, in your department:
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