the Minister of Health triggers the emergency plan

The epidemic of early bronchiolitis is on an exceptional scale and worries parents. Like those of Charlie, a month and a half, hospitalized in Rochefort (Charente-Maritime), Wednesday, November 9. “You don’t expect to experience this when you hear about bronchiolitis”, says his mother. The doctors at the Nancy University Hospital (Meurthe-et-Moselle) are also worried. For Cyril Schweitzer, head of the neonatology child center at Nancy University Hospital, the “next step is to deprogram” children’s operations to free up beds.

No region is spared and the epidemic is reaching levels never seen before. Last week, there were 6,891 children under the age of two admitted to the emergency room, including 2,337 hospitalizations. On Wednesday, the Minister of Health launched a general mobilization plan, the ORSAN plan, the objective of which is to mobilize all the players. But the members of the Pediatrics collective are worried about the consequences that this could have in the long term. “We are in the process of completely finishing off the caregivers who are already exhausted,” says Dr. Julie Starck of the Armand Trousseau hospital in Paris.