The seasonal flu epidemic has now been declared in France, hitting Brittany and Normandy, health authorities announced on Wednesday. “Brittany and Normandy have gone into epidemic”, announced the public health agency France in a report of the week elapsed on November 27. Overseas, the flu epidemic was already hitting Martinique, Mayotte and Reunion.
Other regions are also in the “pre-epidemic” phase. This is the case of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Centre-Val de Loire, Grand Est, Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
The arrival of the influenza epidemic is proving to be rather early this year, in particular compared to the previous season when it had reached a very late peak, at the beginning of spring.
Above all, it comes as two respiratory epidemics are already affecting the country: Covid-19, which has rebounded in recent days, and bronchiolitis, causing an outbreak in babies, unprecedented for ten years. years.
For the flu, the arrival of the epidemic results in a sharp increase in consultations with the doctor, which have jumped by half since last week throughout the metropolis. Likewise, the situation begins to show itself in the hospital. Visits to the emergency room for flu-like illness have also increased by half.