At the Toulouse University Hospital, during the training of caregivers in Covid-19 patient management procedures. - B. Colin / 20 Minutes

  • The managers of the Toulouse University Hospital recorded during the last four days "encouraging signs", with an almost constant number of hospitalizations around the number of 180 cases.
  • This Friday, 63 people were in intensive care, including some from the Grand-Est region.
  • Since the start of the epidemic, 14 people have left intensive care, some of whom have been able to return home, a victory for the nursing staff in Toulouse.

The weeks follow one another but are not alike. Last Friday, officials from Toulouse University Hospital were preparing to live a hard week, feeling the wave of new positive cases for Covid-19 arriving. During the week of March 20 to 27, they had recorded a daily increase of 25% in hospitalizations and five times more serious cases.

A falling figure this week. "The number of hospitalizations has not exploded, we are on a plateau of 180 hospitalizations on average over the last three-four days and between 5 to 10% more serious cases each day," says the director general of the CHU , Marc Penaud.

No wave

“There is no wave or submersion. We have the impression of stabilization, the patients return in smaller numbers, it is a rather reassuring dynamic if it is confirmed. We remain cautious because it is only on three days off the set, but these are encouraging signs, ”confirms Professor Pierre Delobel, head of the infectious and tropical diseases department.

And if the region is less affected, it is also because it was able to prepare, unlike the Ile-de-France and Grand-Est regions. Not to mention that it certainly benefits from the effects of containment, unlike those quickly affected by the coronavirus epidemic. "And then in Toulouse, we have also been trained for a long time in disaster medicine, which allows us to overcome the course a little better", continues the boss of the Samu, Vincent Bounes.

Shift in resuscitation

If patients continue to arrive, others also leave. Friday, 63 people were in his intensive care units where serious cases are treated. Since the start of the epidemic, and the arrival of the first positive cases, 14 have emerged, sometimes extubated after fifteen days of ventilation. Some have even returned home. Small victories for all caregivers.

Even if Doctor Béatrice Riu-Poulenc, head of the intensive care unit at Purpan hospital, tempers. “Between the onset of symptoms and severe forms, there are often seven days. We are at risk of being postponed by a week, ”she indicates with reference to the number of people in intensive care.

If, in the first days of the epidemic, the cases that worsened were mainly those already hospitalized, his services noticed in recent days that there were more and more interventions by the Samu at home for serious cases , with intubations during treatment. “These are often patients who have weaknesses. Two days ago, we took care of a person who had seen his doctor the day before, but as he had frail patients, he probably decompensated more quickly, ”says the specialist, who still has 86 beds available in intensive care. This has made it possible to welcome patients transferred from the Grand-Est over the past three days.

Pr Bounes, head of SAMU31 when patients from the Grand Est arrive at Toulouse-Blagnac airport. An operation under the seal of solidarity and collaboration Inter-services @ARS_OC @ sdis31officiel @ PoliceNat31 @SecCivileFrance @ 11eBP # Covid19France #Toulouse pic.twitter.com/wbBWobQZDj

- CHU de Toulouse (@CHUdeToulouse) April 3, 2020

72% of men affected

And these are most often men, in 72% of the cases treated by the Toulouse University Hospital. “It is a fact that was already advanced. We know there is a different immune response between men and women in these kinds of diseases. So-called innate immunity is better in women than men, especially in women of childbearing potential, "reveals Professor Delobel.

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