Zoé Pallier, edited by Manon Fossat 10:01 am, November 04, 2021
With the approach of winter, the number of cases of bronchiolitis is exploding in France.
In one week, nearly 1,400 infants were hospitalized while hospitals have already been hit for several months by the coronavirus epidemic.
On Europe 1, the president of the National Professional Pediatric Council, Robert Cohen, takes stock of the situation.
Almost 1,400 babies were hospitalized in one week.
The bronchiolitis epidemic continues to progress and now affects the entire territory, with the exception of Corsica, the only one spared.
With the successive confinements, the children have indeed not developed immunity against this virus.
Everywhere in France, medical offices are overwhelmed and hospitals, already hit by the pandemic, are under pressure.
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12 out of 13 regions in an epidemic situation
This situation worries Robert Cohen, president of the National Professional Pediatric Council.
"The emergency rooms are completely saturated and overloaded. There are a lot of young children under three months old who need to be hospitalized," he observes.
Especially since despite the establishment of crisis cells which try to distribute the babies between the different hospitals, the transfers of great distances do not succeed.
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"Like every year, the epidemic begins with the big cities, in particular the Ile-de-France, and then it spreads to the whole country", continues Robert Cohen.
"Today, 12 out of 13 regions are in an epidemic situation and it occurs on teams tired by several months of pandemic and on a relatively large number of closed beds."
Each year in France, nearly 500,000 infants under the age of two are affected by this disease, according to Ameli.