Nothing to worry about, but vigilance is required the development of the influenza epidemic. Brittany is not spared, but the region is not yet in the red. To protect yourself, vaccination “remains the best weapon“, recalls Véronique Gestin-Lauzier, medical adviser for the regional management of the medical service for health insurance, guest of France Bleu Armorique on Wednesday 23 November.
Vaccination is now open to everyone
Open since October 18 for persons at risk, vaccination is now available to all, in a week. “We have been in the pre-epidemic phase for a little over three weeks. We are the first region in France to be at this stage. So it is actually fundamental to talk about vaccination“, explains the doctor.
Doctor Véronique Gestin-Lauzier reminds us that vaccination is “the only recognized effective means of protection, it does not prevent barrier movements: we do not shake hands, we air the rooms and we wash our hands regularly“.
If the vaccination rate was quite high before the health crisis, we were not far from 60% in Brittany, this year there has been a slight decrease. On this campaign around 2022-2023, the start is a bit slow. We are approximately on the numbers with a corresponding period of 20% less” says the doctor.
To limit the risk of complicationsVéronique Gestin-Lauzier calls for vaccination: “People can tend to forget that the flu is still there, it hasn’t gone away, the winter virus is present. Maybe it does too. Since there is vaccination against covid and against influenza, they may think it is a lot. I think we are still minimizing the risk of complications from the flu. It leads to deaths every year, and especially for vulnerable people“.