Studies suggest a decreasing trend in the consumption of meat products and a growing interest in vegetarian diets. Medical support may be relevant, especially when switching to a vegan diet. Our objective was to describe the beliefs and attitudes of primary care physicians toward vegetarian diets. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among general practitioners and pediatricians thorough a questionnaire including socio-demographic characteristics, specific care to vegetarians, and the risks and benefits of vegetarian diets according to physicians. Out of the 177 participating physicians, 104 (59%) have seen at least one vegetarian patient in consultation in the last three months. Half of the physicians declared that they would dissuade their patients from switching to a vegan diet (n = 88, 51%) and 14% (n = 24) from switching to an ovo-lacto-vegetarian (OLV) diet. Most physicians (n = 141, 88%) did not feel informed enough about these diets. Physicians thought that the most frequent deficiencies for OLV and vegan diets were iron (76% and 84%, respectively) and protein (45% and 79%, respectively). These results highlight the fact that French primary care physicians feel concerned by this subject and need more information on these diets. Specific recommendations would be useful to support their practice and relationship with vegetarians.

Contact with the setae of larvae (caterpillars) of pine or oak processionary moths could induce urticarial or allergic reactions in humans. These species are present in France and presently expanding towards highly populated areas due to climate change and/or human-mediated translocations. We aimed to describe the symptomatic cases of exposure to processionary larvae in France. We conducted a retrospective study of symptomatic cases of exposure to processionary larvae registered by the French poison control centres between 1 January 2012 and 31 July 2019. We reviewed all medical records coded with the agent “larvae”. Of the 1274 included cases, 59% and 27% corresponded to pine and oak processionary larvae, respectively; the 14% remaining cases concerned unspecified processionary larvae. While the annual number of cases due to pine processionary larvae fluctuated during the study period, cases associated with oak processionary larvae increased steadily. Most of the annual cases occurred between January and May for pine processionary larvae, and April and August for oak processionary larvae (with a peak in March or June, respectively). Among the 1022 cases for which information was available, the sex ratio was 1.2 and the median age was 11 years old. Skin symptoms were reported by 96,3% of the cases, such as pruritus or urticaria. The severity was mild in 96.3% of cases, moderate in 3.5%, and severe in 0.2% (two cases). Ocular or oral exposures led more frequently to severe symptoms than dermal ones (respectively 31% and 18% vs. 2% of cases, p < 10⁻³). Since processionary moth larvae exposure is a growing health concern, which can cause severe injuries particularly after ocular or oral exposures, the population, and the professionals should be informed of existing recommendations to avoid exposure and measures to be taken after being exposed.

In France, mumps surveillance is conducted in primary care by the Sentinelles network, the National Reference Centre for Measles, Mumps and Rubella and Santé publique France. The objective of this study was to estimate the incidence of suspected mumps in general practice, the proportion of laboratory confirmed cases and the factors associated with a virological confirmation. General practitioners (GPs) participating in the Sentinelles network should report all patients with suspected mumps according to a clinical definition in case of parotitis and a serological definition in case of clinical expression without parotitis. All suspected mumps cases reported between January 2014 and December 2020 were included. A sample of these cases were tested by real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for mumps biological confirmation. A total of 252 individuals with suspected mumps were included in the study. The average annual incidence rate of suspected mumps in general practice in France between 2014 and 2020 was estimated at 11 cases per 100,000 population [CI95%: 6-17]. A mumps confirmation RT-PCR test was performed on 146 cases amongst which 17 (11.5 %) were positive. Age (between 20 and 29 years old), the presence of a clinical complication and an exposure to a suspected mumps case within the 21 days prior the current episode were associated with a mumps biological confirmation. If these results confirm the circulation of mumps virus in France, they highlight the limits of a surveillance without a systematic laboratory confirmation in highly immunized populations.