The flu is gaining ground. According to the weekly report from Public Health France published on Wednesday March 23, the flu epidemic has spread to all regions of France, as well as Corsica. The past week has seen “a continued increase in all flu indicators in mainland France”said the public health agency, observing that “all metropolitan areas are currently in epidemic”. Also, Corsica, until then the last region spared, has gone into the epidemic phase.
The rise of the flu has repercussions on city medicine and the hospital. The intensity of activity linked to the epidemic has increased there over the past week, from “weak” at “moderate” in both cases.
Outside France, the flu remains present in Guyana, but the epidemic there seems to be in decline.
In recent years, the peak of the epidemic – measured by the consultation rate in relation to the number of inhabitants – took place in February. This late surge in the number of cases was “very likely favored by the end of winter school holidays and the easing of measures to control the Covid-19 pandemic”, according to Public Health France, which recalls the importance of barrier gestures.
During the winter of 2020-2021, the containment measures taken against Covid-19 had, by extension, made it possible to block the circulation of many other microbes, such as the influenza virus. But the French, less infected than usual, are also less immunized collectively, which may have favored a resumption of the epidemic this winter.
As for the 2021-2022 flu vaccine, initial data estimate its effectiveness at 50% against all influenza viruses, but they will have to be consolidated in the coming weeks, according to the health agency.