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Tularemia

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Abstract

Tularemia is a rare infectious disease caused by a small pleomorphic, gram-negative rod, Francisella tularensis. Patients who acquire the disease have symptoms and signs that relate to the portals of entry of the bacteria: oculoglandular, ulceroglandular, pneumonic, and typhoidal. This infectious disease has been thoroughly studied through induced infections in volunteers; hence, a considerable body of data has been accumulated in a quantitative fashion about the pathogenicity of tularemia bacilli in humans. Man appears to be one of the most susceptible mammalian hosts studied: fewer than 50 organisms can cause disease whether administered intradermally or by the respiratory route.(42) The usual sources of infections are animals, especially cottontail rabbits, voles, and muskrats. Humans acquire the disease by direct contact or by bites of the ticks, mosquitos, deerflies, and other insects that infest such animals.

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Suggested Reading

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York, 14642, USA

    Richard B. Hornick

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  1. Richard B. Hornick
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Alfred S. Evans (John Rodman Paul Professor of Epidemiology) (John Rodman Paul Professor of Epidemiology)

  2. Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Harry A. Feldman

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© 1982 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Hornick, R.B. (1982). Tularemia. In: Evans, A.S., Feldman, H.A. (eds) Bacterial Infections of Humans. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1140-0_35

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1140-0_35

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-1142-4

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