[The practitioner and vaccination (results of a sample survey)]

A sample survey was performed in 1986 among a sample of physicians in liberal practice with the aim of analyzing their attitude towards vaccination. This sample survey was geographically limited to one "département" in the vicinity of Paris, the "Val-de-Marne" (comprising 1.2 million inhabitants). Eighty-five per cent of the random sample answered the questionnaire, which was aimed at determining opinions and practices in immunizations. The study shows that general practitioners and pediatricians respect the compulsory principle of vaccinations as applied in France, but that 47% would like this principle to be extended to measles and 46% to rubella. Pediatricians perform vaccinations on a more systematic basis than generalists for measles, rubella and mumps. There were 16% of the physicians practising homeopathy, and they tended to vaccinate less than their colleagues against whooping cough, measles, and rubella. The experience of complications of infectious disease is a good incitement to vaccination. The absence of obligation regarding the vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella leads to a large disparity of practices and strategies that could have, at a long range term, unexpected consequences.