The number of childcare passages in the emergency room affected by the disease has almost been multiplied by two in a week.
Le Monde with AFP
In the context of a pediatric emergency crisis, the bronchiolitis epidemic continues to progress. This respiratory disease, which affects babies, has still extended in recent days in France, have detailed the health authorities on Wednesday, October 26. “Almost all of the metropolis is now in epidemic,” summed up the public health agency France in A weekly assessment .
In metropolitan France, only Corsica has not yet struck, but the region is now considered in prior phase. Overseas, the epidemic, already at work in Guyana, has now won Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Current and very contagious, bronchiolitis causes babies a cough and difficult, fast and whistling cough. Even if it is scary for young parents, it is mostly benign. In some cases, it may require a transition to emergencies, even hospitalization.
an earlier epidemic this year
In total, in mainland France, 4,311 children under 2 years old went to the emergency room for bronchiolitis during the week of October 17 to 23, a figure almost multiplied by two compared to the previous week. More than 1,400 were finally hospitalized.
The number of hospitalizations is thus higher than what is usually observed in October, confirming the scenario of an earlier epidemic for the second year in a row. At its summit, the epidemic last year had led to some 2,000 weekly hospitalizations.
This epidemic strikes pediatric emergency services which are more widely immersed in a crisis linked to unsatisfactory working conditions and a lack of staff. Thousands of caregivers denounced this weekend a “loss of meaning” because of an “irresponsible political inaction”. The government responded with the announcement of an emergency plan of 150 million euros, without satisfying the protesters, who always consider the fundamental problems.