The flu has taken up residence in France: the entire metropolis has turned epidemic red since mid-December and the number of cases continued to climb during the last week of 2024. Emergency visits and hospitalizations are also increasing, according to data from Public Health France (SPF). According to the Sentinelles network, which relies on feedback from 1,300 general practitioners, Brittany was even, at the end of December, the French region with the highest incidence rate for acute respiratory infections, including a good portion of influenza. . Like every year, Christmas family gatherings led to a mixing of populations, which could have favored the circulation of the disease.
It is difficult, however, to predict when the peak of the epidemic will be reached. “We will have to wait another week or two to see if the curves continue to rise,” estimates Professor Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti, head of the national reference center for respiratory infections at the Pasteur Institute.
Similar to winter 2022-2023
However, observers remain reassuring: “The epidemic dynamics resemble those of 2022-2023. We don’t seem to have more hospitalizations or serious cases. We are therefore no more worried than in other years,” assures Bertrand Gagnière, epidemiologist in the Breton SPF unit.
It must be said that the strains of flu currently circulating in France, and their associated symptoms, are well known to scientists: “For half of them, it is H1N1, resulting from the 2009 pandemic virus; for a third, type B viruses, and for 15% H3N2. This is often a little more severe on elderly subjects, but there, it circulates little,” explains Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti.
A particularity of this winter, many under 15s are affected. The cause: the significant circulation of type B viruses, “known to be more symptomatic in children and young people”, specifies the Pasteur virologist.
The most severe forms concern people over 65: they represented 64% of hospitalizations at the end of last year, with nearly 2,000 recorded from December 23 to 29, double the number of the previous week.
Causing 3,000 to 15,000 deaths each year, the flu is not to be taken lightly. But even when it does not kill, “it can cause cognitive or autonomy losses,” recalls Bertrand Gagnière.
A poorly followed vaccination campaign?
The main defense against serious forms of influenza, vaccination is slipping among targeted people: the elderly, diabetics, heart patients, etc. : “The vaccination coverage figures will be known in January but information from the start of the campaign showed that it was starting less well than last year,” worries the SPF epidemiologist. “It’s still worth getting an injection, it’s not too late.” Vaccination is effective after ten days,” supports Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti.
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