Key points

Bronchiolitis

The bronchiolitis outbreak observed this year is quite unusual, with a late onset in March 2021 and a small-scale outbreak. Since late April, indicators had returned to a low to moderate level but remained higher than what is typically observed during the post-epidemic phase. However, since week 25 of 2021 (June 21–26), an increase in indicators has been observed again, with a rise in bronchiolitis activity in emergency departments and a resurgence in the number of RSV cases detected by laboratories.

This increase was confirmed in week 28 of 2021 (July 12–18) with rising indicators in the region:

• 43 SOS Médecins consultations were recorded, representing 5.3% of activity among children under 2 years of age (compared to 4.1% in week 27);

• 146 emergency department visits were recorded, representing 10.1% of activity among children under 2 years of age (compared to 9.1% in week 27), of which 80 were followed by hospitalization, representing 54.8% of bronchiolitis cases (compared to 50.8% in week 27);

• Nearly 30% of hospitalizations among children under 2 years of age were for bronchiolitis (up since week 25);

• The number of positive RSV test results remained high among samples tested by the virology laboratories at the region’s university hospitals.