“We should expect the epidemic to spread widely,” said the director of the National Institute for Public Health Surveillance (INVS), Françoise Weber, yesterday Wednesday, June 10, during a press conference of the interministerial crisis unit at Place Beauvau in Paris. The severity of the epidemic, which is expected to spread in the fall, remains difficult to predict, however.
To date, 73 cases of A / H1N1 influenza have been recorded in France. 27 other cases are under investigation. “The influenza A epidemic is not extinct, but by simple actions, it is possible to limit its spread in our country,” said Minister of the Interior Michèle Alliot-Marie.
In the United Kingdom, 621 cases have been counted. There is “a significant number of grouped cases” which encourages France to be vigilant and to strengthen information for travelers from the United Kingdom.
Throughout the world, 26,000 cases of influenza A have been identified. 141 deaths have been recorded on the American continent. The World Health Organization (WHO) could decide “in the coming days” that influenza A goes pandemic, in front of the increase in confirmed cases worldwide, according to Roselyne Bachelot, Minister of Health.
In this case, each country may take the measures it deems necessary. Today, no active circulation of the virus has been observed in France: the situation could therefore remain unchanged, even in the event of a pandemic declared by the WHO.
France has ordered a vaccine from laboratories, including Sanofi Pasteur, which are working on its preparation. Depending on the “technical and health typologies” of the virus, “a vaccine generalized to the entire population could be set up in the fall, if necessary,” said Roselyne Bachelot.
