Medication
Blood tests and cultures can help confirm the diagnosis. Antibiotics used to treat tularemia include streptomycin, gentamicin, doxycycline, and ciprofloxacin. Treatment usually lasts 10 to 21 days depending on the stage of illness and the medication used. Although symptoms may last for several weeks, most patients completely recover.
What are the treatment options for tularemia?
Tularemia as a biological weapon – Medical and public health manage ment. Journal of the American Medical Association , 285(21):2763–2773. Dienst JFT (1963).
Is tularemia a biological weapon?
When soldiers in the USA were voluntarily infected by an aerosol containing 25 000 SCHU-S4 (type A) organisms (Sawyer et al., 1966), they developed tularaemia within 2–7 days of exposure. Treatment with streptomycin, 2 g daily, divided into two doses, was started on the day of onset of fever and given for 6 days. Rapid cure occurred.
How long does it take to cure tularaemia?
Tularemia: a summary of certain aspects of the disease including methods for early diagnosis and the results of serum treatment in 600 patients. Medicine , 19:1–83. Foshay L (1946). A comparative study of the treatment of tularemia with immune serum, hyperimmune serum, and streptomycin.
What is the Foshay study on the treatment of tularemia?
How is tularemia treated?
Antibiotics used to treat tularemia include streptomycin, gentamicin, doxycycline, and ciprofloxacin. Treatment usually lasts 10 to 21 days depending on the stage of illness and the medication used. Although symptoms may last for several weeks, most patients completely recover.
Who does Francisella tularensis target?
tularensis is the target of IFN-γ, as this cytokine does not affect phagosomal escape of either LVS or SchuS4 in either J774A. 1 cells and human or murine primary macrophages (Bonquist et al. 2008; Edwards et al. 2010), but restricts cytosolic proliferation (Edwards et al.
Is tularemia a bioterrorism agent?
Tularemia as a Biological Weapon F. tularensis is considered to be a serious potential bioterrorist threat because it is one of the most infectious pathogenic bacteria known-inhalation of as few as 10 organisms can cause disease-and it has substantial capacity to cause serious illness and death.
Who discovered Francisella tularensis?
While studying plague in ground squirrels in 1911, George McCoy and Charles Chapin discovered a bacterium that caused a different disease. They named the pathogen Bacterium tularense after Tulare County, California, location of their study.
How does Francisella tularensis enter the body?
Pathology. Francisella tularensis may enter the body via the skin, mucous membranes, or respiratory or gastrointestinal tracts, but it typically infects the skin, lymph nodes, lungs, liver, and spleen.
How does Francisella tularensis survive phagocytosis?
Francisella tularensis is an intracellular pathogen that survives and multiplies within host mononuclear phagocytes. We have shown that uptake of the bacterium by human macrophages occurs by a novel process, "looping phagocytosis," in which the bacterium is engulfed in a spacious, asymmetric, pseudopod loop.
When was tularemia used as a biological weapon?
Tularemia was one of several biological weapons stockpiled by the U.S. military in the late 1960s, all of which were destroyed by 1973. The Soviet Union continued weapons production of antibiotic- and vaccine-resistant strains into the early 1990s. F.
What type of biological agent is tularemia?
Tularemia, a bacterial zoonosis, is caused by Francisella tularensis, one of the most infectious pathogenic bacteria known. It requires inoculation or inhalation of as few as 10 organisms to cause disease. F. tularensis is a small, nonmotile, aerobic, gram-negative coccobacillus.
Who is at risk for tularemia?
Tularemia affects males and females, although the majority of cases are males, probably because of greater outdoor exposure opportunities. The disease is rare in the United States with approximately 100-200 new cases reported each year.
What is the history of tularemia?
Tularemia is a zoonotic disease caused by the gram-negative coccobacillus Francisella tularensis. Known also as "rabbit fever" and "deer fly fever," tularemia was first described in the United States in 1911 and has been reported from all states except Hawaii.
Where is Francisella tularensis?
F. tularensis can survive for weeks outside a mammalian host and has been found in water, grassland, and haystacks. Aerosols containing the bacteria may be generated by disturbing carcasses due to brush cutting or lawn mowing; as a result, tularemia has been referred to as "lawnmower disease".
Where is Francisella tularensis found?
A. Tularemia, also known as “rabbit fever,” is a disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. Tularemia is typically found in animals, especially rodents, rabbits, and hares.
What to do if you have tularemia?
If you had been exposed to tularemia, it’s unlikely that you would know it. However, if you’re concerned about it, talk to your doctor immediately. If you see any suspicious situations or activity in your community – including possible use of disease germs as weapons – alert your local law enforcement agency.
How to use tularemia as a weapon?
by consuming or having direct contact with contaminated food, water or soil. by inhaling airborne bacteria in the laboratory and similar settings. Use of tularemia as a weapon would probably involve releasing it into the air, in a populated area.
What happens if you inhale a tularemia?
If you inhale the bacteria, symptoms can include a fever that comes on suddenly, chills, headache, muscle aches, joint pain, a dry cough, and increasing weakness. If it develops into pneumonia, tularemia can cause chest pain, bloody discharge, difficulty breathing or breathing failure.
How long can tularemia live in hay?
The bacteria can survive for up to several weeks in hay, water, soil or animal carcasses. The symptoms of tularemia can vary, depending on how you’re exposed to it. They can include skin ulcers, swollen and painful lymph glands, inflamed eyes, sore throat, sores in the mouth, or pneumonia.
How many people in Minnesota get tularemia?
About 200 people a year, nationwide, become ill with tularemia from natural sources – mostly in the western and south-central part of the U.S. Five cases have been reported in Minnesota over the last ten years.
Can tularemia be passed from person to person?
There are easy ways to spread it, even if it can’t be passed from person to person. It could have a large impact on human health, including a high death rate. It could cause widespread panic and social disruption. Special measures are necessary to prepare for a possible tularemia attack.
Can tularemia be caught?
Tularemia is easy to catch – as few as 10 to 50 individual bacteria can make you sick. Natural sources of the bacteria include small animals like voles, mice, squirrels, rabbits, and hares. Use of tularemia as a weapon would probably involve releasing it into the air, in a populated area.
What is tularemia in animals?
Tularemia is a disease that can infect animals and people. Rabbits, hares, and rodents are especially susceptible and often die in large numbers during outbreaks. People can become infected in several ways, including: Tick and deer fly bites. Skin contact with infected animals. Drinking contaminated water.
Can bioterrorism cause tularemia?
Inhaling contaminated aerosols or agricultural and landscaping dust. Laboratory exposure. In addition, people could be exposed as a result of bioterrorism. Symptoms vary depending how the person was infected. Tularemia can be life-threatening, but most infections can be treated successfully with antibiotics.
What is tularemia in animals?
What is Tularemia? Tularemia is a potentially serious illness that occurs naturally in the United States. It is caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis found in animals (especially rodents, rabbits, and hares).
What are the symptoms of tularemia?
chills. headaches. diarrhea. muscle aches. joint pain. dry cough. progressive weakness. People can also catch pneumonia and develop chest pain, bloody sputum and can have trouble breathing and even sometimes stop breathing. Other symptoms of tularemia depend on how a person was exposed to the tularemia bacteria.
What would happen if F. tularensis was used as a weapon?
If F. tularensis were used as a weapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne for exposure by inhalation. People who inhale an infectious aerosol would generally experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection, if they are not treated.
How do you know if you have tularemia?
These symptoms can include ulcers on the skin or mouth, swollen and painful lymph glands, swollen and painful eyes, and a sore throat.
Can tularemia be spread?
Tularemia is not known to be spread from person to person. People who have tularemia do not need to be isolated. People who have been exposed to the tularemia bacteria should be treated as soon as possible. The disease can be fatal if it is not treated with the right antibiotics.
What is the fatality rate of tularaemia?
Before the advent of antibiotics, the fatality rate of type A tularaemia was 5–15% and in its most severe forms as high as 30–60%. Currently, it is less than 2% (Dennis et al., 2001). High fever is accompa nied by progressive weakness, malaise, anorexia and loss of weight.
Where were the WHO guidelines developed?
The guidelines are the result of an international collaboration, initiated at a WHO meeting in Bath, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2003, continued in Umeå, Sweden, in 2004 and inalized in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2005.
Does LVS cause tularaemia?
In addition to these studies there is evidence that the LVS vaccine has had an impact on the incidence of laboratory-acquired tularaemia. A study published by Burke in 1977 reported the incidence of laboratory-acquired tularaemia before (1950–1959) and after (1960–1969) routine immunization of workers.
Is tularaemia a laboratory infection?
Due to the extremely low infectious dose, tularaemia has been one of the most commonly reported laboratory-associated bacterial infections (Pike, 1976; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000; Shapiro & Schwartz, 2002).
What Is Tularemia?
How Do You Get Tularemia?
Can You Get It from Other people?
Why Is It Considered A Possible Terror Weapon?
Specialist to consult
Can It Be Treated?
Can It Be Prevented?
What Should I Do If I Think I May Have Been Exposed to Tularemia?