The measles epidemic persists and there is no treatment to date. The Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn and the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Brittany therefore call on the French (even adults) to be vaccinated, following the death of an unvaccinated thirty-something in Poitiers.
Recently, a 32-year-old young woman with measles died at the Poitiers University Hospital (Vienne). This tragedy, while the epidemic persists in New Aquitaine, highlights the risks to which unvaccinated French people are exposed against this contagious disease, for which there is still no treatment.
Make a “catch-up”
The Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn called Wednesday at the microphone of France Inter, “all people who are not vaccinated (against measles) or who have not had their children vaccinated to do a catch-up”. “When vaccination coverage of the population is insufficient, the most vulnerable people catch it,” she said. In some regions of France, the coverage is around 70%, it is totally insufficient to prevent an epidemic from emerging “.
# le79inter @agnesbuzyn and the epidemic of #measles : “I ask those who are not vaccinated to catch up” pic.twitter.com/oFGVmxAxyL
– France Inter (@franceinter) February 14, 2018
Until then only recommended, therefore considered “optional” in the collective unconscious, the measles vaccine is now one of the 11 compulsory vaccines for children born from 1er January 2018. Minister Agnès Buzyn calls on unvaccinated adults to take their precautions. “People born after 1980 should have received a total of two doses of trivalent vaccine (MMR, Measles, mumps, rubella, editor’s note)”, specifies the vaccination schedule published by the government. Note that it is possible to be vaccinated up to 72 hours after having been in contact with an infected person.
Children are the most affected
In France, in 2017, measles is certainly not trivial: of the 208 hospitalized patients, we find mainly children under 5 years old or adults over 20 years old. Among the latter, 27%, or 53 patients, had serious complications: 4 encephalitis and 38 severe pneumonia. Six patients had to be admitted to intensive care and one patient died. The most affected population is undoubtedly children under 1 year of age with 12% of reported cases (61 cases).
Brittany is also getting started
The Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional health agency (ARS) has so far identified 269 confirmed cases, of which 66 required hospitalization and 4, admission to intensive care. Nine cases were detected in Brittany in early February. The Brittany Regional Health Agency (ARS) also calls on people to get vaccinated as soon as possible. “What we want is to sound the alarm before finding ourselves in an explosive situation. The majority of those recently affected were not vaccinated” indicates Doctor Dominique Le Goff, doctor of the ARS. “To prevent the virus from circulating, 95% of children under two should be vaccinated.”
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