On Twitter, many residents of the Lille metropolis complain of symptoms similar to those of Covid-19 and evoke a new disease. But, for doctors, it is above all a question of the great return of seasonal ailments.
- Students from the Lille metropolis claim to have all the same symptoms: sore throat, cough, loss of voice … and speak of “Lille disease” on social networks.
- According to health professionals, these are in fact seasonal diseases such as angina, which reappear after the reduction of barrier gestures.
Sore throat, aphonia, fatigue, cough… For the past fortnight, on Twitter and TikTok, Internet users living near Lille have all complained of similar symptoms, similar to those of angina or nasopharyngitis. Some report falling ill after going out to nightclubs and bars in the northern capital, or after attending the LOSC Champions League match last Wednesday at the Pierre Mauroy stadium.
I got Lille disease, sore throat, it’s terrible
— Max Burak ???? (@maxBuraak) September 17, 2021
under lille disease ????
— lili (@lilipereii) September 14, 2021
It’s bugging me I’ve been sick for 1 week and I was told it was something that affected a lot of people in Lille but I can see that people call it “Lille’s disease”
– Lalou???? (@lalouhihi) September 13, 2021
It was enough for the fear of a new variant of Covid-19 to spread, despite the encouraging figures showing a decline in the epidemic throughout the metropolis.
For fear of having been contaminated, most of these (young) patients took a screening test, which turned out to be negative. “We were informed by an attending physician who observed an upsurge in flu-like symptoms among students in the Lille metropolitan area. After investigation, the suspicion of Covid-19 was ruled out since we were on negative PCRs”explains a member of the Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS) to BFM TV.
No “Lille disease”… but a banal angina
Should we then fear the appearance of a new disease, baptized on social networks by those concerned “disease of Lille”?
Health professionals want to be reassuring. According to them, there is no new pathology on the horizon… Only the return of seasonal ailments from before the Covid-19 pandemic, barrier gestures no longer being so well respected. Asked by The voice of the NorthDr Sophie Prévot, a general practitioner practicing in Vieux-Lille, believes that it is a simple “return of the usual seasonal viruses”. And if the majority of patients describing these symptoms are young people, it is because they “have resumed classes, are starting to mix again, with integration evenings, the resumption of associations”. “It’s really business as usual. Viruses aren’t any meaner this year”says the doctor.
Dr. Audrey Lombart, who also practices in Lille, shares this opinion. “These are fairly frequent pathologies, especially during climate change. I have no bizarre angina, no abnormal activity”she says to North Lightning.
“On the other hand, if you have a cough and sore throat, the reflex is indeed to do a PCR test”recalls Dr. Lombart.
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