The bronchiolitis epidemic, a winter illness that mainly affects babies, is now spreading in Normandy, the second region in mainland France affected after Île-de-France, the public health agency announced on Wednesday.
After a brief stabilization probably linked to the All Saints' school holidays, bronchiolitis, most often caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), began to gain ground again during the week ending Sunday, November 16, according to the weekly update from Public Health France.
After the Paris region, already affected by the epidemic since the end of October, "Normandy was entering an epidemic phase" at that time, noted SpF.
Other regions are expected to follow: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Brittany, Hauts-de-France and Pays de la Loire are already considered to be in pre-epidemic.
Although generally not serious, bronchiolitis can cause complications in infants and lead to hospitalization, especially when they are less than a year old and even more so when they are only a few months old.
From November 10 to 16, 1,736 children under one year old went to the emergency room for bronchiolitis, and 504 were subsequently hospitalized, according to the health agency.
Two immunizing treatments are now available: Pfizer's Abrysvo, a vaccine administered directly to the mother before the baby's birth, and AstraZeneca and Sanofi's Beyfortus, a treatment given to the infant during its first months of life.
French pediatricians, however, expressed regret at the beginning of the month that too few children had received Beyfortus. According to the French Society of Pediatrics, fewer than half of eligible babies had received this treatment, which is only partially reimbursed by Social Security.
As for the other major winter epidemics, the flu epidemic has not yet been declared but is showing its first signs.
Last week, "a slight increase in indicators was observed in the city, particularly among 0-18 year olds," noted Public Health France. "The positivity rate was clearly increasing and highest in this age group, marking the beginning of influenza virus circulation in this population," it pointed out.
After some signs of resurgence in September, Covid appears to be on a downward trend again, with a decline in "most indicators", both in general practice and in hospitals.
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