Search

In the world, the impact of environmental conditions on the number of scorpion events was evaluated in North Africa,Middle East, and the Amazonian region but not in Europe. In mainland France, scorpion species described are Buthus occitanus (Amoreux, 1789), Belisarius xambeui (Simon, 1879) and 4 Euscorpiidae: Euscorpius concinnus (Koch, 1837), Euscorpius italicus (Herbst, 1800), Euscorpius tergestinus (Koch, 1837), and Tetratrichobothrius flavicaudis (De Geer, 1778). We aimed to describe the impact of environmental conduction on the number of scorpion events. For this, a retrospective multi-center study was conducted with data from the French poison control centers files about scorpion events between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2020. During the study period, 975 incoming calls for scorpion events were recorded and 574 were related to scorpions native to mainland France and Corsica: B. occitanus (n = 86), Euscorpiidae species (n = 222), B. xambeui (n = 1), and undetermined species (n = 265). Cases were mostly reported along the Mediterranean coast, along rivers, and in cities with a trading port. The number of scorpion events was linked to the rivers' water level, rivers' flow, temperature, sunshine, and pluviometry (P < 0.05 for all variables). B. occitanus need warmest and driest environment than Euscorpiidae spp. A link between the severity of the envenoming and climatic condition or seasonality was not demonstrated.

Resume De nombreuses especes de coleopteres peuvent etre responsables d’envenimations dont la gravite clinique necessite parfois une prise en charge medicale urgente. Les taxons de la famille des Staphylinidae, sous-famille Paederina sont a l’origine d’une dermatite lorsque leur hemolymphe vesicante entre en contact avec la peau. Nous rapportons ici le cas d’un marin victime d’une envenimation a Paederus a bord d’un navire, au mouillage au large des iles Canaries (Espagne). L’identification de l’arthropode en cause par les specialistes du Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris (MNHN) et la gestion de ce cas par telemedecine par le Centre de Consultation Medicale Maritime (CCMM, Unite Fonctionnelle du SAMU 31 – CHU de Toulouse) ont permis d’etablir un diagnostic et de proposer le traitement adapte conduisant alors a la guerison du patient, sans necessite de le debarquer.

To analyse the association between patients’ socioeconomic position (SEP) and the use of emergency departments (EDs). This population-based study included all visits to ED in 2012 by inhabitants of the French Midi-Pyrenees region, recorded by the Regional Emergency Departments Observatory. We compared ED visit rates and the proportion of non-severe visits according to the patients’ SEP as assessed by the European Deprivation Index. We analysed 496,388 visits. The annual ED visit rate increased with deprivation level: 165.9 [95% CI (164.8–166.9)] visits per 1000 inhabitants among the most advantaged group, compared to 321.9 [95% CI (320.3–323.5)] per 1000 among the most disadvantaged. However, the proportion of non-severe visits was about 14% of the visits, and this proportion did not differ according to SEP. Although the study shows a difference of ED visit rates, the probability of a visit being non-severe is not meaningfully different according to SEP. This supports the assumption that ED visit rate variations according to SEP are mainly explained by SEP-related differences in health states rather than SEP-related differences in health behaviours.