Flu here, flu there. What should we understand in all the information that comes to us from France and China?
The flu epidemic is doing well in France. Five regions are now affected, according to the Public Health Health Agency. After Ile-de-France and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d´Azur region, the epidemic reached Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie and Pays de la Loire. Since the beginning of November, there have been 17 deaths caused by respiratory and cardiac complications in elderly or frail people, and often unvaccinated (almost three-quarters).
Read also: Influenza: how many deaths in France in 2019?
The cold keeps the virus
Last year, at the end of winter, the death toll from the flu was estimated at 1,000 directly or indirectly. Figure difficult to assess precisely in reality.
The flu spreads more easily in cold weather. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the cold keeps even viruses, especially viruses. And so kept, kept awake in the fresh air, they have more time to find victims. On the other hand, the cold weakens the organisms which thus become angel targets. Especially those who have not taken a vaccine.
What does this have to do with the epidemic of coronavirus pneumonia currently raging in the Chinese city of Wuhan and which puts WHO on alert? No.
Radical Chinese decision
This “Chinese flu” is just very similar to that which was responsible for the acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) of 2003. It attacked the lung tissue with an incredible ferocity, from where a beginning of panic. This new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has already claimed 17 victims in a few days, 570 are also infected in the city where PSA Peugeot Citroën has had a factory since the 1980s and where almost 500 French people live. A study estimates that there could be 4,000 people affected in the country. Chinese authorities have quarantined the city of 11 million people. A radical decision. In the absence of more complete information, the WHO had this Thursday January 23 struggling to assess the global health risk while welcoming “these very strong measures”
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