The annual bronchiolitis epidemic has now spread to most of the French metropolis, after accelerating in recent days, summarizes a weekly report from Public Health France. Four new regions are now considered in the epidemic phase.
Hauts-de-France, Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie are now considered in the bronchiolitis epidemic phase, bringing the number of metropolitan regions in this situation to 10, according to a weekly report. of Public Health France.
Martin Ducret, doctor and journalist at Doctor’s Daily, talk to us today from a Scandinavian study, which developed a clinical score to assess the degree of severity of bronchiolitis in infants. A valuable tool at this time of the start of the bronchiolitis epidemic.
franceinfo: a clinical score? Explain to us
Martin Ducret: This is a large study published in the journal The Lancet in more than 1 million infants. The authors of the study identified and then analyzed nearly 1,500 risk factors, potentially responsible, in infants under 1 year of age, for serious bronchiolitis, that is to say requiring hospitalization.
And thanks to these analyses, they developed a score to predict the severity of bronchiolitis with 16 easily identifiable risk factors, such as being born prematurely, at the height of the epidemic, having certain diseases at birth, or to have brothers and sisters under the age of 4.
What does this mean in practice?
In the days following the birth of a baby for example, thanks to this very simple tool, and even before the infant is infected with the bronchiolitis virus, the doctor will be able to calculate the risk of bronchiolitis occurring as a percentage. severe. And the score obtained will help decide whether the infant is a candidate for preventive treatment against bronchiolitis.
A treatment like Beyfortus?
Yes absolutely, like the Beyfortus monoclonal antibody, this new treatment in a single injection, which protects against the bronchiolitis virus, initially accessible to all infants, but which is currently out of stock in the city, a victim of its success .
In fact, you should know that in 95% of cases, bronchiolitis is a benign illness, which heals spontaneously at home, within a few days. We can therefore ask ourselves whether a treatment like Beyfortus should be administered to any infant, regardless of their risk of developing serious bronchiolitis, or only to those at high risk?
The answer is not yet clear, if we rely on the opinion of the College of Teachers of General Medicine, published last September, which calls for additional evaluations to refine the indications for this new treatment. Finally, in this context, the new clinical score that I have just presented to you seems to have its place in the management of bronchiolitis.