Thirteen residents of a Lyon retirement home died of the flu within a few days. The Igas has been seized.
In Lyon, an influenza epidemic spread in a retirement home, killing 13 residents. The people died between December 23 and January 7, announced this Saturday the Minister of Health who seized the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas).
Among the 13 elderly people who died, six were vaccinated, said Dr Emilie Arabian, coordinating doctor for the Korian group and referent for the 30 establishments in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. According to her, “46% of residents have been vaccinated against the flu. Vaccination was interrupted when the epidemic occurred in the establishment,” quoted by AFP.
Low coverage
“To be able to be vaccinated, you must not have infectious syndromes and accept vaccination, which is not the case for all residents,” said Dr Arabian. The Ministry of Health had told AFP on Saturday evening that the vaccination rate within the establishment reached 38%, against a national average of 80%. A level which is only reached at the end of January, at the end of the vaccination period, according to Dr Arabian.
The epidemic “developed early in the Berthelot nursing home from December 21, it decreased at Christmas time and then a new outbreak prompted us on December 27 to introduce an isolation measure”, continues Emilie Arabian.
Confinement
All people with the flu have been confined to their rooms. “No grouping of residents has been authorized, including for meals taken in the rooms,” said the doctor.
Family visits, “warned by telephone from the start of the epidemic and regularly informed”, have also been restricted. Staff observe the protocol for wearing a mask and washing hands with a hydroalcoholic solution.
To date, “43 people considered sick remain in isolation,” said the doctor. This isolation “will be lifted seven days after the end of symptoms for people with the flu”.
Six hospitalized
Out of 72 people who contracted the flu during this period in the “accommodation establishment for dependent elderly people (EHPAD) Korian Berthelot in Lyon”, 13 people, with an average age of 91.5 years, died and “Six are still hospitalized,” the ministry said in a statement.
At the request of Marisol Touraine, the regional health agency (ARS) Auvergne Rhône-Alpes launched Friday “an inspection mission in order to control the implementation by the establishment, since the start of the epidemic, of recommendations of the health authorities for the fight against influenza”.
In a press release, the Minister of Health specifies that she has asked Igas to “analyze the causes at the origin of this exceptional event” and to submit a first progress report “within ten days”.
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