The flu epidemic continues to decline in the French mainland, but persists in the West Indies.

The rise in temperature in recent days may have something to do with it. The influenza epidemic continues to decline in the French mainland, even if many regions remain affected, and the episode has already reached an exceptionally long duration, the public health agency noted this Wednesday.

The French mainland saw “a decline in most flu rates” last week, according to a weekly report from Public Health France. Of the 13 mainland regions, eight are believed to be in the epidemic phase. On the other hand, the epidemic seems likely to end in Corsica, Ile-de-France, Occitania and, as in the past few weeks, Normandy and Hauts-de-France. Abroad, the epidemic is still affecting the West Indies and now Mayotte.

“The 2022-2023 epidemic (starts) is now in its 17th week, which is longer than the average duration of epidemics from 2010 to 2022 of 11 weeks, and is the longest during this period,” Public Health France stressed. This season, the influenza epidemic began quite early and lasted for many months, the body explained. Despite a decline in early 2023, it has been revived with a different strain of the virus. More broadly, Covid has been added to the flu this season, as well as a severe infant bronchiolitis epidemic, to put particular pressure on the healthcare system.