Over the past week in the region:

• The region is in its 9th week of the flu epidemic. Despite a decline in the epidemic over the past 3 weeks, flu activity remains high. SOS Médecins reports that 12% of visits are for flu-like symptoms, still above the epidemic threshold of 4%. The prevalence of the H3N2 virus is decreasing, with an increasing proportion of type B viruses (rising from 11% to 22% of isolates from virology laboratories). The number of severe cases hospitalized in intensive care (119 cases) has exceeded the number observed during each of the last five epidemic seasons (18 to 81 cases), with an increasing incidence starting at age 50. Excess mortality among people over 85 years of age has been around 25% since early January, with the increase having leveled off over the past week.

• 190 clusters of acute respiratory infections (ARI) have been reported in nursing homes since September 1, 2014. The number of new ARI clusters is beginning to decline, with 21 new outbreaks reported since the last update (compared to 31 last week). Week 6 saw a record peak in outbreaks with 37 clusters in a single week. A complete report is already available for 58% of these clusters: a downward trend in the hospitalization rate is observed in these closed clusters, falling from 12% in December to 8% in January, then to 5% in February.

• Despite a decrease in emergency department activity—which remains high among the elderly—11 hospitals in the region have maintained or activated their “hospital under strain” plan to address the saturation of hospital beds.

• Furthermore, after 8 months of low incidence of meningococcal infections in 2014, cases have been on the rise for the past 3 months, with two-thirds caused by meningococcus serogroup B.