Fever, chills, extreme fatigue, cough, body aches … This is the most common symptomatic cocktail for people affected by the influenza virus. And they are more and more numerous in recent days. Like every year, the holiday season and the gathering of families is conducive to the spread of the particularly active virus in winter and until spring.
So before you or someone close to you comes into contact with the virus, there is still time to test your knowledge. The more we know about the flu virus, the better we can protect ourselves from it.
Six regions including Occitania in “pre-epidemic”
The latest weekly newsletter from Public health France, published Thursday, January 2, reports 6 regions in the “pre-epidemic” phase. These are Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Brittany, Ile-de-France, Occitanie, Pays de la Loire and Provence-Alpes-Côte d´Azur.
Epidemic periods of influenza, or of bronchiolitis and acute gastroenteritis (the most frequent ailments in winter) have been classified according to a method common to all regions. Virological surveillance is established in the epidemic phase of 3 levels: without alert, pre or post epidemic phase, and epidemic phase. The number of cases makes it possible to construct an epidemiological curve to measure the extent of the contagion over a given period. Alert levels are thus set and communicated to the agents and structures in charge of public health.
A third increase over the previous week
Between December 23 and 29, 2019, 2,445 people went to the emergency room in mainland France for influenza or influenza-like illness, compared to 1,758 between December 17 and 22.
Of these, 198 were hospitalized. The proportion of influenza-like illness among SOS Doctors’ consultations also increased by 3.7%.
Since the onset of the flu, 61 serious cases have been reported. The average age of the cases is 54 years. Four people died.
Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself
Public health France recalled that vaccination is the best way to protect yourself from the flu and its complications. A period of 15 days after the bite is necessary to be protected.
From now on, it is possible to be vaccinated in pharmacies, except for minors who must go to a doctor.-
