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in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
December 23, 2022
While the flu epidemic is currently affecting all regions of mainland France and most of the overseas territories, the number of hospitalizations is worrying the health authorities.
Three days before Christmas and family reunions, the latest figures from Public Health France are not reassuring. The flu affects all regions and all ages, and health authorities are seeing a “very sharp increase in hospitalizations“.
Flu: + 118% of people hospitalized
Between December 12 and 18 (week 50), hospitalizations for flu-like illness after a visit to the emergency room increased by 118% compared to the previous week.
All “the age groups“are affected specifies Public Health France.
The number of visits to the emergency room also increased by 84%.
As for the proportion of flu-like illnesses among SOS Médecins medical procedures, it increased by 8 points.
Consequently, the report of the health authorities is not very happy: in mainland France, the authorities observe “a continued increase in influenza indicators“, in all age groups and a “very sharp increase in hospitalizations“.
“The emergencies are saturated everywhere, it’s overflowing everywhere“, warns on BFM TV the head of the nephrology-paediatrics department at the Necker hospital in Paris Rémi Salomon. “The worst is ahead of us”.
Overseas too, Guyana and Guadeloupe are hard hit. Like the other regions, they have just entered phase “epidemic“.
130 flu deaths have been recorded
Since week 40, among the 49,775 deaths declared in mainland France by electronic death certificate, “130 (0.26%) were with a mention of influenza as a morbid condition having directly caused or contributed to death, including 113 since mid-November“, specifies Public Health France.
Of these 130 deceased patients, “4 were under 15, 15 were between 15 and 64, and 111 were 65 or older“.
In addition, 15 deaths concerned residents of nursing homes.
For Dr. Kierzek, these figures remind us that the flu is not a “benign pathology“.
“Like every year, the flu kills. On average, there are about 15,000 deaths per year. The problem is that this flu epidemic – predictable moreover – intervenes in the context of an unprecedented hospital crisis: the emergency rooms are overwhelmed, the beds are lacking, access to care becomes impossible..”