Your doctor will most likely prescribe antibiotics, which must be taken according to the directions supplied with your prescription to ensure the best possible result.
Let your doctor know if you have any allergy to antibiotics. A vaccine for tularemia is under review by the Food and Drug Administration and is not currently available in the United States.
Tularemia occurs naturally in many parts of the United States. Use insect repellent containing DEET on your skin, or treat clothing with repellent containing permethrin, to prevent insect bites. Wash your hands often, using soap and warm water, especially after handling animal carcasses. Be sure to cook your food thoroughly and that your water is from a safe source.
Note any change in the behavior of your pets especially rodents, rabbits, and hares or livestock, and consult a veterinarian if they develop unusual symptoms. Francisella tularensis is very infectious. A small number or so organisms can cause disease. People who inhale an infectious aerosol would generally experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection, if they are not treated.
The bacteria that cause tularemia occur widely in nature and could be isolated and grown in quantity in a laboratory, although manufacturing an effective aerosol weapon would require considerable sophistication. The CDC operates a national program for bioterrorism preparedness and response that incorporates a broad range of public health partnerships.
Other things CDC is doing include:. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Several virulence-associated genes were located in a putative pathogenicity island, which was duplicated in the genome.
The genome is rich in IS elements, including IS Tc-1 mariner family transposons, which are not expected in a prokaryote. A computational method was used for predicting metabolic pathways and found an unexpectedly high proportion of disrupted pathways, explaining the fastidious nutritional requirements of the bacterium. The loss of biosynthetic pathways indicates that F. Clinical disease, when it occurs, typically consists of fever, anorexia, and listlessness.
Additional symptoms may include skin or mouth lesions, draining abscesses, enlarged lymph nodes, and nasal and ocular discharge. Clinical disease, when it occurs, may consist of fever, anorexia, listlessness, skin or mouth lesions, draining abscesses, and enlarged lymph nodes.
Large epidemics with high mortality have been seen in range sheep. Clinical signs are not specific, and usually include fever, anorexia, and depression. Cough, rapid respiration, diarrhea, and stiffness and edema of the limbs may also occur. Important wild animal hosts include cottontail and jackrabbits, beaver, muskrat, meadow voles, and sheep in North America, and other voles, field mice, and lemmings in Europe and Asia.
The incubation period is days. In sheep and most mammals, the disease is characterized by sudden onset of high fever, lethargy, anorexia, stiffness, reduced mobility, or other signs associated with septicemic disease. Pulse and respiratory rates are increased. Coughing, diarrhea, and pollakiuria may develop. Prostration and death may occur in a few hours or days. Sporadic cases are best recognized by signs of septicemia. Outbreaks in untreated lambs may have up to 15 percent mortality.
Subclinical cases may be common. The most consistent lesions are miliary, white to off-white foci of necrosis in the liver and sometimes in the spleen and lymph nodes. Enlargement of the liver, spleen, and lymph nodes is common. Organisms can be readily isolated from necropsy specimens by use of special media. Risk of infection during necropsy or to laboratory personnel is significant; special procedures and facilities are essential.
Tularemia must be differentiated from other septicemic diseases especially plague or acute pneumonia. When large numbers of sheep show typical signs during periods of heavy tick infestation, tularemia or tick paralysis should be suspected.
Tularemia should be considered in cats with signs of acute lymphadenopathy, malaise, oral ulcers, and history of recent ingestion of wild prey. Diagnosis of acute infection is confirmed by culture and identification of the bacterium, direct or indirect fluorescent antibody test, or a 4-fold increase in antibody titer between acute and convalescent serum specimens.
In Oct hamsters from a Canadian pet distributor were found to be infected with type B tularemia as well. No human cases were reported. Tularemia has been associated with hamster hunting in Russia and in Hungary Szekelyfoldi, J. Tularemia in hamster hunters.
Del Med J In , 18 cases were diagnosed in which the source of infection was hamsters. These infections occurred in 4 villages in Hungary along the Berettyo River. Tularemia is a widespread disease in animals.
About human cases of tularemia are reported each year in the United States. Most cases occur in the south-central and western states. Nearly all cases occur in rural areas, and are caused by the bites of ticks and biting flies or from handling infected rodents, rabbits, or hares. Cases also resulted from inhaling airborne bacteria and from laboratory accidents. What are the signs and symptoms of tularemia? The signs and symptoms people develop depend on how they are exposed to tularemia.
Possible symptoms include skin ulcers, swollen and painful lymph glands, inflamed eyes, sore throat, mouth sores, diarrhea or pneumonia. If the bacteria are inhaled, symptoms can include abrupt onset of fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, joint pain, dry cough, and progressive weakness.
People with pneumonia can develop chest pain, difficulty breathing, bloody sputum, and respiratory failure. Tularemia can be fatal if the person is not treated with appropriate antibiotics. Why are we concerned about tularemia being used as a bioweapon?
Francisella tularensis is highly infectious. A small number of bacteria organisms can cause disease. If Francisella tularensis were used as a bioweapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne so they could be inhaled.
People who inhale the bacteria can experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection, if they are not treated. Can someone become infected with the tularemia bacteria from another person? People have not been known to transmit the infection to others, so infected persons do not need to be isolated.
How quickly would someone become sick if he or she were exposed to tularemia bacteria?
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