Treatment with Beyfortus, intended to limit the risks of bronchiolitis in babies, made it possible to avoid around 5,800 hospitalizations, according to an estimate from Public Health France.
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“It’s a form of relief”reacted Friday April 26 on franceinfo Christèle Gras-Le Guen, head of the pediatrics department at Nantes University Hospital and spokesperson for the French Society of Pediatrics, while the administration of Beyfortus, treatment intended to limit the risks of bronchiolitis in babies, made it possible to avoid around 5,800 hospitalizations after going to the emergency room during the last epidemic, according to estimates from Public Health France.
“This confirms the clinical impression we had”underlines Christèle Gras-Le Guen. “This winter saw few children hospitalized even though they had been immunized. So we are absolutely delighted to be able to confirm this clinical impression with scientific data.” These results will “allow this approach to be developed and continued for future epidemics”.
Parents’ support is a “surprise”
During the winter “we limited the most serious cases, and in particular those who needed resuscitation”, explains the pediatrician. She recalls that, “in previous epidemics, these places in intensive care were very expensive. Some children traveled miles before being able to be hospitalized.”
Christèle Gras-Le Guen says “surprise” duty “parental support” to treatment “by more than 80% in certain centers”. She recalls that at the end of the Covid-19 epidemic, “Parents could be extremely reluctant to vaccinate in certain situations.” For the Beyfortus, “Parents trusted us even though we vaccinated toddlers with a product that was brand new, but for which we had extremely convincing scientific data.” The pediatrician sees “a great success” and one “real service rendered to parents”.
“The ideal would be to expand the protected age group”
Christèle Gras-Le Guen nevertheless underlines a “limit” to the Beyfortus administration campaign. “We were not able to immunize all children under the age of one”, as the AMM (Marketing Authorization) would authorize. But “there are still 250,000 children who have benefited from it”. According to the spokesperson for the French Pediatric Society, “the ideal would be to be able to expand the protected age group and go up to six, even twelve months”.
For the next campaign, the government has planned 600,000 doses of Beyfortus. “600,000 doses is approximately the number of children born in one year in France”, underlines Christèle Gras-Le Guen. So according to her, “given the 80% of parents who adhere to immunization, this should be approximately the number of doses necessary to protect children under one year old.”