In France, an average of 2.5 million people are affected, 25 to 50% of whom are children or young people under the age of 15 (source INSERM). The epidemic spreads from November to April, starting most frequently around the end of December/beginning of January. It lasts an average of nine weeks.
The flu is often considered, wrongly, as a benign pathology.
Indeed, it can lead to severe complications in subjects at risk (elderly people or subjects weakened by an underlying chronic pathology, pregnant women, obese, etc.).
The magnitude of the epidemic varies from year to year. For example, 3,700 deaths were attributed to influenza during the 2019-2020 epidemic. The 2020-2021 season was very different:during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, there was no flu epidemic in the northern hemisphere. In 2016-2017, 14,000 deaths were attributed to influenza. Note:90% of the deceased are over 65 (source INSERM).
The populations at risk of complications are therefore:
The incubation period is 24 to 72 hours and ends with the sudden onset of symptoms:fever above 38°, chills, body aches, severe fatigue in particular, and cough or difficulty breathing.
Symptoms usually disappear within a week, but severe fatigue may persist for several weeks.
It is important to differentiate between flu symptoms and flu-like illness:
Symptoms of flu and Covid-19 can therefore be confused.
The treatment of the flu is essentially symptomatic:rest, hydration, taking analgesics.
Always prefer paracetamol to anti-inflammatories, do not exceed the authorized doses.
Antibiotics are not effective against viruses. They should therefore not be used as a cure for influenza. However, the flu can be associated with bacterial superinfection (Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus) which is most often located in the respiratory tract. This bacterial superinfection may be partially responsible for influenza-related mortality.
In the case of a proven bacterial superinfection or a risk of superinfection in people at risk (elderly people, pre-existing pulmonary pathology, cardiovascular pathology, immunosuppression linked to a malignant pathology), it is recommended to use the appropriate antibiotics, not to treat the flu itself, but to treat the bacterial superinfection that may be associated with it.
There is also an antiviral treatment, specific for the flu. Post-exposure prophylactic treatment with INA antivirals must be started within 48 hours after contact with a person with influenza. It reduces the risk of contracting it. It is recommended for subjects at risk. Under no circumstances are antivirals an alternative to vaccination. They remain little prescribed, they are not recommended in symptomatic patients without risk factors.
Several strategies can be put in place to protect yourself from the flu:wash your hands regularly, use hydroalcoholic gel in the absence of a water point, avoid close contact with an infected person, wear a mask if you are sick , ventilate the accommodation regularly. But the best protection remains vaccination before the arrival of the flu!
To be vaccinated is to protect yourself, but it is also to protect others, especially the most vulnerable people for whom the flu can be dangerous.
No vaccine protects with certainty against the onset of the disease. A vaccinated person can contract the flu, but in a milder way. In all cases, vaccination remains the most effective protection strategy against severe forms.
It should be noted that the body needs, after injection of the vaccine, two weeks to produce the antibodies necessary for protection against the flu virus.
It is necessary to be vaccinated each year, during the vaccination season, preferably before the first cases declared in France. Viruses are constantly changing, and new strains are appearing. Future vaccine strains are selected 9-12 months before the flu season, taking into account data in the northern and southern hemispheres (reversed seasons).
There is no homeopathic vaccine. Influenzinum granules are a very dilute version of the flu vaccine. The High Council of Public Health of France considers that the use of homeopathic medicines instead of the flu vaccine constitutes a loss of opportunity, especially in people at risk of complications.
During the first phase of the vaccination campaign, the populations targeted by the vaccination recommendations have priority.
Vaccination campaigns against the flu and against Covid-19 are being carried out at the same time! Influenza vaccination can therefore be associated with a booster vaccination against Covid-19 in people eligible for both vaccinations. You can choose to:either vaccinate on the same day on two different arms, or vaccinate on different dates. In the second case, we try to respect if possible a minimum period of 15 days between the two vaccines but it is not obligatory. Of course, in order to be able to inject the booster dose against Covid-19, it is necessary to take into account the delay of at least 6 months after the last injection of the vaccine against Covid-19. Special case of patients who have received the Janssen vaccine:they must receive a booster dose of an RNA vaccine 4 weeks later, or failing that, as soon as possible.
Vaccination is possible from the age of six months and should be recommended as a priority to people at risk of complications and to those around them (source:ameli.fr).
Finally, vaccination is recommended for all people who do not wish to suffer the personal or professional embarrassment caused by the flu. The greater the number of people vaccinated (vaccination coverage), the fewer people the influenza virus will affect and the less severe the epidemic will be. You will just have to wait to be able to buy a vaccine, the pharmacist having to deliver them in priority to the eligible populations who are the most fragile.
The influenza virus is characterized by frequent mutations which require an annual adaptation of the composition of the vaccine according to the strains having circulated during the previous season. Vaccination is designed to provide protection for one season. It is therefore advisable to get vaccinated every year.
The vaccine is administered intramuscularly in the following doses (source:ameli.fr):
* 2 doses one month apart as a primary vaccination, an annual booster dose.
The professionals authorized to vaccinate against influenza are doctors, midwives, nurses and pharmacists.
The vaccine is contraindicated in case of hypersensitivity to the active substances, to any of the excipients and to traces of, for example, eggs, chicken protein. The vaccine may also contain traces of neomycin, formaldehyde and octoxinol 9.
Vaccination should be postponed in case of fever, deterioration of general condition or acute infection.
Vaccines in France do not contain an aluminum adjuvant, as the latter is not necessary to obtain a satisfactory immune response.
