The flu epidemic continues to decline in France

The flu epidemic, which has been particularly strong this year, continued to decline last week, but is continuing in ten regions, particularly overseas, the public health agency announced on Wednesday.

In France, the decline in flu epidemic indicators continued in "all age groups": among those under 15, those aged 15-64, and those aged 65 and over, Public Health France (SPF) stated in its weekly report ending Sunday, March 2.

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The number of emergency room visits for flu-like symptoms fell to 1.51 out of 300 patients, compared to 2.41 out of 300 patients the previous week. The number of hospitalizations for the same reason fell to 1.31 out of 300 patients.

Six out of ten people hospitalized were seniors, a proportion stable compared to the previous week.

Geographically, while the epidemic is over in the Centre-Val de Loire, Corsica and Normandy regions, the ten other regions of mainland France remain in the epidemic phase, although the level of intensity is low, both in general practitioners' offices and in hospitals, the agency specifies.

Overseas, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and Mayotte also remained in epidemic mode over the past week.

In France, since the beginning of October, of the 1,625 serious cases of flu recorded requiring hospitalization in an intensive care unit, 47% concerned people aged 65 or over.

Among them, nearly nine out of ten people (86%) had at least one comorbidity, the agency indicates.

And among the 1,000 cases for which vaccination status was reported, 77% of these people were not vaccinated against the flu and 214 deaths were reported, including 126 among those aged 65 or older, according to provisional data.

Vaccine efficacy against influenza viruses circulating in mainland France was found to be much lower in seniors (aged 65 and over), at 28%, than in people under 65, where it was 55%, according to preliminary results available as of March 4.

The flu vaccination campaign, which began on October 15, combined with that of Covid, ended on February 28.

For their part, bronchiolitis and Covid remain stable at a low level.