Four French regions are in the “pre-epidemic” phase, alerting the organization Public Health France in its weekly disease bulletin, published this Thursday, and which concerns week 51. These are Occitanie, Ile-de-France, Pays de la Loire, and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. PACA and the Pays de la Loire therefore join the two other regions which were already placed on regional alert the previous week.
During week 51 (December 16-22), 1,787 people went to the emergency room in mainland France for influenza or influenza-like illness, i.e. 46% increase compared to the previous week. 160 were hospitalized. In ambulatory medicine, for the same week, the consultation rate for influenza-like illness is 51 per 100,000 inhabitants. 11 serious cases of influenza were also identified in a week.
Since the start of surveillance in November, 47 severe cases of influenza have been admitted to intensive care, 167 episodes of grouped cases of acute respiratory infection have been reported in elderly communities.
Some prevention tips
Among the prevention tips disseminated by Santé Publique France, there is for example sneezing in your elbow, or washing your hands frequently, or even using disposable tissues. Because do you know how long the virus survives on clothes, papers or handkerchiefs? From 8 to 12h …
