Tularemia is a zoonotic infection caused by Francisella tularensis
-it is a gram-negative, aerobic bacillus
-it’s principal reservoir is tick
-it is transmitted by ticks, ingestion, inhalation or direct contact with infected tissues
-it is a potential agent of bioterrorism
Symptoms & Signs
-it has 6 major clinical presentations: glandular, ulceroglandular, oculoglandular, oropharyngeal, typhoidal, and pneumonic forms
-Depending on the form, fever, headache, nausea, sore throat, cough, ulceration, lymphadenopathy
–most common form of the disease: ulceroglandular disease, where an ulcer arises at the site of inoculation and regional lymphadenopathy develops
Complications: meningitis, perisplenitis, pericarditis, pneumonia, and osteomyelitis
Diagnosis
Serologic testing, culture of ulcer, lymph node aspirate, or blood; agglutination tests
Treatment
Streptomycin (drug of choice), Gentamicin, doxycycline