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If the epidemic peaks of Covid-19 and bronchiolitis seem to have passed, the flu continues to wreak havoc. Hospitalization figures are on the rise, but other indicators show that the epidemic is not that big. The point of view of Eric Caumes, infectious disease specialist and consultant doctor at the Hôtel-Dieu, in Paris.
She may have ruined your Christmas, forcing you to cancel your traditional family dinner. She is the flu. The epidemic seems to have affected more than one at the end of the year and Public Health France confirms this impression.
An increase in consultations and hospitalizations
In its weekly bulletin of December 21, Public Health France warns of the “continued increase in influenza indicators in all age groups“, and some “very sharp increase in hospitalizations”. She mentions the figure of +118% in one week, a real jump, just like consultations for respiratory infection, which increased by 57%.
A rate, however, lower than 2018, estimated at 400 per 100,000, well below the 600 per 100,000 reached that year. In addition, the death rate for people in intensive care, which was 11% in April, has dropped to around 6% according to doctor and journalist Damien Mascret.
Two reasons that accelerated the epidemic
Among the causes that can explain the runaway contamination, several factors coexist. The cold that set in in mid-December confined more people to closed, poorly ventilated places, whether at home or at work.
One of the other explanations is the relaxation of barrier gestures. Associated with Covid-19, they have gradually been abandoned even though they prevent all kinds of infections.
Vaccination struggling to catch up
Finally, vaccination was not followed very closely this year. According to the Ministry of Health, which counts 11 million doses sold on December 18, we have just reached the figures for last year, at the same time. “Vaccination struggled at the start” confirms Professor Eric Caumes, infectious disease specialist and consultant at the Hôtel-Dieu, in Paris. Can we see a link with the vaccine against Covid-19 – and the controversy that still exists around – that the population is turning away from the vaccine? “Hard to say” replies the doctor, who however notes that “the campaign had never skated so much before“.
Moreover, the specialist always advises to be vaccinated: “It’s never too late to do well, fragile people need to be protected against the risk of pneumonia and superinfection that exists with the flu”.