The flu epidemic continues its progression in France, affecting all ages, with an increasing level of intensity in hospitals, while it remains "moderate" in the city, Public Health France (SpF) announced on Wednesday.
During the week ending December 28, the flu progressed "in all regions, all in epidemic" except for Reunion Island, the health agency specified in its weekly update.
This worsening of the epidemic led to a surge in hospital activity, with 18,552 emergency room visits (5.21 per 100,000 of the total, compared to 41 per 100,000 the previous week), primarily for the care of children under 15 and people over 65. Influenza accounted for 3,606 hospitalizations (4.81 per 100,000 of the total, compared to 3.41 per 100,000 the previous week).
In cities, the flu epidemic is generally "moderate," with divergent trends depending on age. It is receding among those under 15, "probably linked to the school holiday period," which reduces mixing, but remains at a "high intensity" level among those aged 65 and over, according to SpF.
After a severe 2024-2025 season in terms of mortality – more than 17,000 deaths – the health agency notes a slight increase in the number of deaths declared by electronic certificate mentioning influenza: 4.1% (compared to 2.7% the previous week), close to the level of the same days last year (3.9%).
Nine out of ten of these deaths concern people aged 65 and over, whose vaccination coverage was 44.2% on November 30 compared to 40.5% at the same time last year.
"It is likely that the use of influenza care will begin to decrease in the coming weeks in most regions of mainland France, while remaining at a high level," the Pasteur Institute judges in weekly models.
The Institute thus estimates that the epidemic could have reached its peak during the last week of 2025 – the perspective is not sufficient to say at this stage – “with a probability greater than or equal to 50%”.
But "the possibility of a resurgence of the epidemic after the Christmas holidays, or later in the winter season, cannot be ruled out at this stage," warns the Pasteur Institute.
Meanwhile, the bronchiolitis epidemic continues in mainland France and has reached Corsica. However, the number of visits to emergency rooms has decreased and hospitalizations are stable compared to the previous week.
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