Status Updates

According to data available as of September 28, 2017, from the 65 emergency departments in the Occitanie region, 260 emergency department visits for asthma involving children under 15 years of age were recorded in week 38 of 2017 (between September 18 and 24, Figure 1). The increase in emergency department visits for this reason is therefore continuing in the Occitanie region (+8% between weeks 37 and 38), while a decrease is observed at the national level (Figure 3). The number of cases recorded is higher than what was observed in previous years during equivalent periods. These asthma visits account for more than 4% of total emergency department activity for this age group (Figure 2), making it the third leading cause of emergency department visits this week, after trauma and ENT infections, which are also rising sharply (Figure 4(a)).Nearly one-third of the children were hospitalized after their emergency department visit, representing more than 140 hospitalizations in the Occitanie region over the last two full weeks (Weeks 37 and 38).Medical procedures performed by the SOS Médecins associations and related to asthma in children under 15 continued to rise in week 38 (+26% compared to week 37), with 47 consultations/visits conducted by the associations in Nîmes, Montpellier, Toulouse, and Perpignan.The active circulation of picornaviruses must be taken into account in the trends currently observed regarding asthma diagnoses (see page 3).