The hospital under pressure again? The bronchiolitis epidemic began this year, like last year, early. If it is impossible for the moment to predict its evolution, “an impact on pediatric services is to be expected”warned Friday, October 14 Public Health France.
>> Bronchiolitis epidemic: “We cannot open more beds”, because “there are not enough nursing staff”, alarms a pediatrician
An epidemic of this respiratory disease, which affects babies and can sometimes lead them to hospital, is underway in four French regions (Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France, Occitanie, Nouvelle-Aquitaine) and appears in the horizon in ten others (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Brittany, Centre-Val de Loire, Grand-Est, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Pays de la Loire and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur)health authorities said on Wednesday.
“What we are currently seeing is clearly an increase in epidemiological indicators, an increase in hospitalizations”, alerted Sophie Vaux, of Public Health France. For more“we will remain very cautious due to the circulation of Covid-19 and potential competition” of the two viruses, she added.
In the field, caregivers hold a similar discourse, in a persistent context of staff shortages. “I would not say that we are cracking up at the moment, but we feel that it is starting to climb”testified to AFP Noëlla Manquin, childcare nurse at the Parisian Robert-Debré hospital. “We have children who arrive and who are [dans un état] much more serious than a week ago: we will keep them much longer in the emergency room”she detailed. “They are getting smaller and smaller, too: it ranges from a few days to two or three months.”
Normally, the bronchiolitis epidemic follows the same seasonal pattern from year to year. It starts between the end of October and mid-November, reaches a peak in December, ends at the end of January or even the end of February. But this temporality has been affected since Covid-19, in many countries.