EPIBAC Public Health Bulletin: Surveillance of Invasive Bacterial Infections in 2018

Published on 30 January 2020

Key Points

In mainland France, in 2018 compared to 2017, the following were observed:

a stable incidence of invasive infections caused by Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae;
a slight decrease in the incidence of invasive infections caused by Streptococcus pyogenes;
a slight increase in the incidence of invasive infections caused by Streptococcus agalactiae, as shown below:

	2017		2018		2017->2018
	Incidence/100 ,000 pop.	[95% CI]	Incidence per 100,000 population	[95% CI]	Incidence ratio	[95% CI]	p
Haemophilus influenzae	1.5	[1.5–1.6]	1.6	[1.5–1.6]	1.02	[0.97–1.08]	0.363
Streptococcus pneumoniae	9.9	[9.8–10.0]	10.0	[9.8–10.1]	1.01	[0.99–1.03]	0.450
Streptococcus pyogenes	3.5	[3.4–3.6]	3.3	[3.2–3.4]	0.95	[0.92–0.99]	0.005
Streptococcus agalactiae	4.7	[4.6–4.8]	5.0	[4.9–5.1]	1.09	[1.06–1.12]	0.000

Incidence trends, 2009–2018

The incidence of invasive Haemophilus influenzae infections shows an upward trend from 1.1 in 2009 to 1.5 cases per 100,000 in 2018 (p<10^⁻⁴).
The incidence of invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae infections decreased from 14.6 in 2009 to 8.3 cases per 100,000 in 2014 (p<10^⁻⁴) and then increased to 10.0 per 100,000 in 2018 (p<10^⁻⁴).
The incidence of invasive Streptococcus pyogenes infections remained stable until 2013 at around 2.5 cases per 100,000 (p=0.088), then increased to 3.3 cases per 100,000 in 2018 (p < 10^⁻⁴).
The incidence of invasive Streptococcus agalactiae infections remained stable at 4.0 from 2009 to 2015 (p=0.602) and then increased to 5.0 cases per 100,000 in 2018 (p<10^⁻⁴).
The incidence of invasive Listeria monocytogenes infections shows a slight downward trend from 0.6 in 2009 to 0.5 cases per 100,000 in 2018 (p=0.010).
The incidence of invasive Neisseria meningitidis infections shows a downward trend from 1.2 in 2009 to 0.8 cases per 100,000 in 2018 (p < 10^⁻⁴).

In the overseas departments and regions (DrOM)

In 2018, the incidence of invasive infections was higher in the DrOM than in mainland France, except for Streptococcus pneumoniae (9.2 vs. 10.0 cases per 100,000 (p=0.023); 2.0 vs. 1.5 cases per 100,000 (p<10^⁻³) for Haemophilus influenzae, 7.0 vs. 3.3 cases per 100,000 (p<10^⁻⁴) for Streptococcus pyogenes, and 7.6 vs. 5.0 cases per 100,000 (p<10^⁻⁴) for Streptococcus agalactiae.