Summary

• In week 26 of 2017 (June 26 to July 2), emergency room visits for all causes declined across all age groups (-10% among children and -4% among adults). Hospitalizations also declined slightly across all age groups.

• In week 26, for most seasonal and summer illnesses—and particularly for diagnoses potentially linked to heat—there was a decrease in visits across all age groups, with activity levels comparable to previous years. Furthermore, in the context of a seasonal epidemic, there was a marked increase in emergency department visits for viral meningitis among children (+71%) and adults aged 15–74 (+49%). The share of this condition in overall emergency department activity is higher than in the previous two years but remains relatively low (<0.1% across all age groups). Finally, a few isolated increases were also observed, specifically in visits for asthma attacks among adults aged 15–74 (+22%) and allergies among children under 2 years of age (+12%, though with a small sample size). Furthermore, among children under 2 years of age, despite a decrease in visits for fever alone (-13%), a slight increase in hospitalizations was observed (+60 hospitalizations).

• Among the most common conditions, there was a slight increase in abdominal pain across all age groups. There was also an increase in visits for: neurological disorders among children aged 2–14 (+13%) and adults aged 15–74 (+8%), urinary tract infections among those aged 15–74 (+8%), strokes among those aged 75 and older (+12%), and chest pain among adults aged 15 and older (+13%).