REPORTAGE
The High Authority for Health sounded the alarm on Tuesday: vaccinations must resume urgently because they fell considerably with the Covid-19 epidemic and containment, she said. This particularly concerns infants for whom delays in vaccination have increased. Europe 1 went to Puteaux, in the pediatric office of doctor Fabienne Cahn-Sellem, to try to better understand the situation.
-35 to -70% of vaccine sales
A vaccine "it stings, above all": that's what Claire Marie, 19 months, would say if she could speak. The little girl was confined to the family in the provinces, far from her pediatrician. As soon as she returned to the Paris region, her mother Laëtitia immediately made an appointment for the second injection of the measles vaccine. "I told myself that it was important to do it. Compared to the initial prescription, we came a little later ...", she admits.
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In the case of Claire Marie, the injection was just a little delayed, safe for the health of the little girl. But what alarms the French National Authority for Health is the overall drop in vaccine sales from -35 to -70% during confinement.
Towards a "resurgence" of measles?
"It is particularly worrying concerning that against measles", explains doctor Cahn-Sellem, pediatrician in Puteaux, who has just taken care of Claire Marie. "Sales of measles vaccine have dropped by 50%, we fear a resurgence of the disease. But it's very contagious, much more than corona! An affected child can infect between 15 and 19 people - and that's a disease that can be serious. "
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The doctor made his calculations and calls all the parents to come to consult: "For children from zero to two years old, the ideal would be to manage to catch up within a month." And the problem does not concern only the very young, because in frail adults, many have forgotten to redo their vaccine against tetanus and pneumococcus.