A pneumococcal epidemic worries health professionals in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône). Several people working on a shipyard were hospitalized, some of them in serious condition.
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The old port of Marseille (illustration photo) | PIXABAY / MEMYSELFANEYE
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While the coronavirus panics in France (for more information, follow our direct here) and in the world, in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), it is a completely different disease that worries health professionals, reports Provence.
“We have been facing a real epidemic for three days, grouped cases of pneumococcal infections” explains Professor Philippe Parola, specialist in infectious diseases at the Institut hospitalo-universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée infection, in Marseille.
“Some almost died”
“And from that, yes, we can die from it”, He explains. Twenty-five patients, half of whom have severe pneumococcal infection, were treated, reports the regional daily.
“Some have almost died. Two are still in intensive care but the prognosis is reassuring “, added Philippe Parola. What all the patients have in common is that they frequented the same shipyard, that of the Norwegian Spirit liner of the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), which arrived in early January.
Mundane symptoms
The symptoms are not initially very worrying: cough and fever. But the risk of contagion is high, since nearly 3,000 people live on the site, especially in cabins shared by 2, 3 or 4. A virulent epidemic that Professor Philippe Parola had not seen in 25 years.
One of the explanations put forward is that several cases of pneumococci were discovered on a boat, in a Finnish port. “Some of our patients were there. It’s a track “, says Philippe Parola. The virus is currently being analyzed in the laboratory.
As of the first symptoms, the patients must receive an antibiotic treatment.
The shipyard has resumed
The specialist would like to set up a ” vaccination strategy for people working in this “ecosystem” that this site is “.
In the meantime, people at risk of infection will be received at the IHU“Without going through an emergency department”. The shipyard, it resumed on Friday, January 31, relates Provence.
–More than the coronavirus, it is the pneumococcal epidemic on a shipyard that worries in MarseilleOuest-France.fr—
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