the health. The flu epidemic affects the whole of France

The influenza epidemic continues to advance in France, where it has now spread to all regions of the capital, Corsica, the newest, according to the French public health weekly report, published on Wednesday.

And last week saw “a continuous increase in all indicators of influenza in France”, notes the Public Health Agency, noting that “all urban areas are currently in an epidemic.” Corsica, until then the last region spared, had entered the epidemic phase.

An unusual flight late in the season

The emergence of influenza has implications for the city’s medicine and hospital. The intensity of pandemic-related activity there has increased over the past week, going from “low” to “moderate” in both cases.

Outside mainland France, influenza is still present in French Guiana, but the epidemic there appears to be in decline.

This flu outbreak is unusually late in the season. In recent years, the peak of the epidemic – as measured by the rate of consultation in relation to the population – occurred in February.

Relaxation of measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic

This phenomenon was “most likely favored by the end of the winter school holidays and the easing of measures to control the Covid-19 pandemic”, according to the French public health, which mentions the importance of barrier gestures.

However, the winter of 2020-2021 was special, due to the containment measures taken against Covid. They, by extension, made it possible to prevent the circulation of many other microbes, such as the influenza virus.

The French have less herd immunity

But the French, who are less infected than usual, are also less collectively immunized, which could favor a resumption of the epidemic this winter.

For the 2021-2022 influenza vaccine, preliminary data estimates its effectiveness at 50% against all influenza viruses, but it will need to be boosted in the coming weeks, according to the health agency.