Late! The flu epidemic peak was reached in week 11, confirms the Institut de Veille Sanitaire. Children under 15 have been particularly affected.
Even if it was late, the epidemic peak of the flu has finally been crossed in metropolitan France! The latest bulletin from the Institut de Veille Sanitaire (InVS) reveals that last week (from 03/28/2016 to 04/03/2016), the incidence rate of cases of influenza syndromes seen in general medicine consultation was estimated at 295 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, i.e. 192,000 new cases, above the epidemic threshold (104 cases per 100,000 inhabitants).
This is the tenth consecutive week above the epidemic threshold. The epidemic peak was reached in week 11, corresponding to the 8th epidemic week.
But this bulletin also contains good news since “the activity of influenza syndromes has been declining for two weeks”, specify these epidemiologists. And this “should continue in the coming weeks”, rejoices the InVS.
In all, 2.2 million consultations for flu syndrome have been recorded since the start of the epidemic, he concludes.
Limousin, the most affected department
At the regional level, the highest incidence rates were observed in: Limousin (548 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), Picardy (526) and Haute-Normandie (499). And a staggering figure, twenty of the twenty-two metropolitan regions still have an incidence rate above the national epidemic threshold.
Regarding the cases reported, last week, the median age was 28 years (7 months to 91 years). The clinical pictures reported by the Sentinels doctors did not present any particular sign of seriousness: the percentage of hospitalization was estimated at 0.1%.
Whether through data from the Sentinelles network or from SOS Médecins, the proportion of children under 15 among consultations for flu syndrome is the highest observed since the 2009 pandemic (respectively 41% and 39% of consultations ). In recent years, this proportion was indeed less than 30%, except in 2010-11 and 2012-13, 2 seasons when the type B virus was, like this season, in the majority.
According to the InVS, “one of the reasons for explaining this large proportion in children could be their low exposure to B viruses which have circulated little in recent years (24% of influenza viruses between 2003 and 2013 were of type B)” .
The strong impact of the epidemic on children is also found through the data of the emergency services of the Oscour network where children represent since the start of the epidemic, 61% of passages for influenza and 46% of hospitalizations.
.
