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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
At the start of the year, hospital indicators concerning what has been called “the triple epidemic”, namely influenza, bronchiolitis and Covid-19, seem rather encouraging. Even if the Minister of Health François Braun confirms the trend, he believes that we must “remain cautious”. The opinion of Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo.
Is the triple epidemic of bronchiolitis, influenza and Covid-19 receding in France? The figures from Public Health France tend to indicate this trend, but according to the Minister of Health François Braun, at the microphone of our colleagues from France Info on January 7, “You still have to be careful.”
Influenza, bronchiolitis, Covid: strong and early epidemics
Last week was marked by a “slowing of the circulation of influenza viruses but maintenance at a high level” noted Public Health France in its weekly report of Wednesday January 4, for the week of December 26, 2022.
Early this year, the circulation of the flu virus is therefore starting to run out of steam. Ditto for bronchiolitis, whose levels have been particularly high this year, and whose hospitalization figures are now falling.
Pay attention to the resumption of contamination
If a slowdown in the flu epidemic is therefore notable, the “hospitalizations and deaths continued to increase, particularly among those aged 65 and over” reports to Public Health France. Particular caution is also required because of the period.
At the end of the year, with the holidays and the reduction in the mixing of the population, the figures improve but the start of the school year can be a factor in the rebound of the epidemic.
A context of strike that continues
If this triple epidemic tends to calm down, it would relieve the public hospital, in difficulty due to the lack of staff and the massive influx of patients who are victims of these viruses. Because during a strike by liberal doctors, it is to the emergency room that the population turns in priority. This strike, which began at the end of December, is continuing this week.
For Dr Gérald Kierzek, “the viruses we have been confronted with do not affect the same populations overall: bronchiolitis virus in children, on the one hand; influenza or Covid in adults on the other hand. In reality, these are not the viruses which have changed, the epidemics are certainly a little more virulent, and concomitant, but it is above all the state of health of the public hospital, on its knees and the lack of beds which create this situation“.