Par Camille Ducrocq
Published on October 14, 22 at 6:04 pm
The bronchiolitisthis viral respiratory disease, which mainly affects young children, is widespread Ile-de-France. The region has just passed the epidemic threshold, according to the latest epidemiological bulletin of Public Health France published on Wednesday 12 October 2022.
A situation of precocity and intensity that prompted the Minister of Health, Francois Braunto go on Friday 14 October to the Pediatric Emergency Department of Robert Debre Hospital to Paris. In particular, it provided an update on the actions taken by professionals in the face of winter epidemics.
An epidemic still earlier this year
As in 2021, the bronchiolitis epidemic is repeated this year as well in advance compared to the years preceding the health crisis of COVID-19. Normally winter, with a beginning in late October and a peak in December, it started this year in late September and is very intense.
The week of September 26 to October 2, 2022, the number of cases increased by 41% in the emergency room compared to the previous week and hospitalizations by 27%, according to Public Health France.
The island of France is one of the four most affected regions, along with the Hauts-de-France, New Aquitaine et Occitania. The Ile-de-France region went from pre-epidemic to epidemic in less than a month. And this translates into an increasing number of hospitalizations in a very short time.
In the pediatric emergency room alone at the Robert Debré hospital in Paris, “more than half of the bronchiolitis cases currently admitted can quickly reach the red level,” he said. Loss of Titomanlio, head of service, to the Minister of Health on Friday 14 October. This respiratory disease is really a lot contagious.
Fear of service saturation
The early arrival of the epidemic last year has put hospitals in difficulty, already “under pressure” with the health emergency of Covid-19. A year later, “the context is even more unfavorable”, warns the hospital management Robert Debré. There is in particular “a great fragility of the workforce”, in particular linked to a decline in the attractiveness of the health professions, which complicates the maintenance of open beds.
Currently there is 12 closed beds in neonatal pediatrics in this Parisian hospital. The management hopes to be able to open six on 1 November, and another six in general pediatrics, of the 30 beds open today. The intensity of the bronchiolitis epidemic affecting the region raises fears saturation next pediatric ward.
This is what Robert Debré’s pediatric emergency health workers protested to the minister. He wanted to reassure them.
The AP-HP (Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, ed) is fully mobilized with a specific plan to implement all the hospital’s resources to respond to these peaks of activity related to bronchiolitis during the winter. It is not the first year that professionals have become accustomed to these winter peaks. (…) It may happen that there are saturations of beds that require the transfer of children to other hospitals, or even to neighboring regions. However, these transfers are carried out in excellent condition, without endangering the children.
Regarding the attractiveness of the health professions, Francois Braun he assured that it was “one of the objectives of the ministry”. “I want to work on the difficulties of the hospital in general and, of course, the professions related to childcare will be integrated into this reflection. “
The minister appeals to everyone’s “responsibility”
To prevent the epidemic from taking on unmanageable dimensions, the Minister of Health asked for “everyone’s responsibility”: “This is the case of bronchiolitis, but also of the flu that is about to arrive and the restart of Covid. He recalled the importance of “barrier gestures, wearing a mask, washing hands and vaccinating adults against Covid and the flu”.
If you have symptoms of bronchiolitis, Public health France recommend taking your child to Emergency room if it is in any of the following cases:
- The baby is less than six weeks old
- He is a former premature baby of less than three months
- You have a respiratory or heart disease
- He drinks less than half of his bottles over three consecutive meals
- He vomits constantly
- Constantly sleeps or cries unusually and cannot sleep
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