2002 Reportable Communicable Disease Summary

Tularemia, also known as rabbit or deer-fly fever, has recently gained notoriety as a possible ?category A? agent of bioterrorism. Tularemia is caused by Francisella tularensis, a hardy organism found in rodents, rabbits, and squirrels; in ticks, flies, and mosquitoes; and in contaminated soil, water, and animal carcasses. Biovar type A is the most common type in North America and is highly virulent; as few as 10?50 organisms can cause disease.


General symptoms of tularemia include fever, malaise, myalgias, headache, chills, rigors, and sore throat. Tularemia has six clinical forms, depending on portal of entry. Ulceroglandular tularemia is the most common form of the disease, accounting for 75?85% of naturally-occurring cases. Other clinical forms of the disease include: pneumonic (pulmonary symptoms); typhoidal (GI symptoms and sepsis); glandular (regional adenopathy without skin lesion), oculoglandular (painful purulent conjunctivitis with adenopathy), and oropharyngeal (pharyngitis with adenopathy).


Tularemia occurs throughout the US. People become infected primarily through handling contaminated animals; the bite of infective deer flies, mosquitoes, or ticks; direct contact or ingestion of contaminated food, water, soil; or through inhalation of infective aerosols. From 1993?2002, 23 cases of tularemia were reported in Oregon (range, 1?5 per year). Cases occurred in residents of 12 counties, and were evenly spread across age groups.