The immunocompromised are on the alert
facing the contagious variant Omicron. In Côte-d’Or, candidates who have received an organ transplant in particular also increase the risk of contracting the virus in the midst of the 5th wave of the epidemic in France.
The end of heightened vigilance during the holidays?
During the holiday season, the immunocompromised had to be vigilant, in limiting their contact with their relatives. “You shouldn’t make hugs” between his relatives, sums up Nadége Migliarini, who received two new lungs in 2013 after a transplant. Instead, these tips: “Put hydroalcoholic gel” on his hands or “put on the mask whenever someone is not well.”
And if most people with compromised immunity are off work, despite everything, the rest is written at work for some. In a particular context, confides Vivian Guerchou, who works in a plastics company in Beaune and who has just come out of a transplant at the end of 2021:“They have reduced the staff around me. They gave me FFP2 masks to protect me. I try to go on a lunch break when my colleagues are not there. ”
“They have reduced the staff around me. I try to go on a lunch break when my colleagues are not there. ” Vivian Guerchou
Low numbers but constant tension
The proportion of immunocompromised people remains low in hospital but the tension is good at all times, Cyril Charnay, from Fussey between Dijon and Beaune. Affected by cystic fibrosis, he recounts a form of lucidity in the face of the events of the Covid-19 period. “I’m not as angry as I was at the start. With a little more hindsight, I say to myself “watch out”, except that the life and precaution aspect take over.
“What might make me angry is that a donor is saving my life and telling me that there is a risk that this damn virus could damage my transplant. It can make me say “be careful is the person in front of me negative?”
Cyril Charnay for example has believed to be caught by the virus between Christmas and New Years. A big cold sweat for this salesman who “thought to be positive” with its self-test. He was ultimately negative. Nevertheless, the fear is very present, after receiving two new lungs in February 2020.
Meanwhile, at Dijon University Hospital, the situation is being closely monitored. Even vaccinated, 2 immunocompromised people are currently in intensive care, infected with the Delta variant. For the moment, patients still carry the Delta variant, while the majority of contaminations are now made in Côte-d’Or with the Omicron variant.
And if the Dijon hospital limited contaminations until then with treatment by injection of antibodies, the Omicron variant is reshuffling the cards according to Doctor Denis Caillot, the head of the hematology service. New drugs for immunocompromised people are expected in the second half of January. By the way, they are not immunocompromised people but non-vaccinated patients which occupy 36 of the 70 beds in the intensive care unit at Dijon CHU.
For now, the vast majority of immunocompromised people in France and hospitalized because of Covid-19 come from the Delta variant, and not yet from the Omicron variant. In total, just under 300,000 immunocompromised people in France have already been infected since the start of the pandemic almost 2 years ago.