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