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Tularemia is a zoonosis caused by Francisella tularensis. Humans of any age, sex, or race are universally susceptible to this systemic infection. Tularemia is primarily a disease of wild animals and persists in contaminated environments, ectoparasites, and animal carriers. Human infection is incidental and usually results from interaction with biting or blood-sucking insects, contact with wild or domestic animals, ingestion of contaminated water or food, or inhalation of infective aerosols. The illness is characterized by various clinical syndromes, the most common of which consists of an ulcerative lesion at the site of inoculation, with regional lymphadenopathy and lymphadenitis. Systemic manifestations, including pneumonia, typhoidal tularemia, meningitis, and fever without localizing findings, pose a greater diagnostic challenge.
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ETIOLOGY AND EPIDEMIOLOGY
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F. tularensis is a class A bioterrorism agent (Chap. 10). With rare exceptions, tularemia is the only disease produced by F. tularensis—a small (0.2 μm by 0.2–0.7 μm), gram-negative, pleomorphic, nonmotile, non-spore-forming bacillus. Bipolar staining results in a coccoid appearance. The organism is a thinly encapsulated, nonpiliated strict aerobe that invades host cells. In nature, F. tularensis is a hardy organism that persists for weeks or months in mud, water, and decaying animal carcasses. Dozens of biting and blood-sucking insects, especially ticks and tabanid flies, serve as vectors. Ticks and wild rabbits are the source for most human cases in endemic areas of the southeastern United States. In Utah, Nevada, and California, tabanid flies are the most common vectors. Animal reservoirs include wild rabbits, squirrels, birds, sheep, beavers, muskrats, and domestic dogs and cats. Person-to-person transmission is rare or nonexistent.
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The four subspecies of F. tularensis are tularensis, holarctica, novicida, and mediasiatica. The first three of these subspecies are found in North America; in fact, subspecies tularensis has been isolated only in North America, where it accounts for >70% of cases of tularemia and produces more serious human disease than other subspecies (although, with treatment, the associated fatality rate is <2%). The progression of illness depends on the infecting strain’s virulence, the inoculum size, the portal of entry, and the host’s immune status.
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Ticks pass F. tularensis to their offspring transovarially. The organism is found in tick feces but not in large quantities in tick salivary glands. In the United States, the disease is carried by Dermacentor andersoni (Rocky Mountain wood tick), Dermacentor variabilis (American dog tick), Dermacentor occidentalis (Pacific Coast dog tick), and Amblyomma americanum (Lone Star tick). F. tularensis is transmitted frequently during blood meals taken by embedded ticks after hours of attachment. It is the taking of a blood meal through a fecally contaminated field that transmits the organism. Transmission by ticks and tabanid flies takes place mainly in the spring and summer. However, continued transmission in the winter by trapped or hunted animals has been documented.
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Tularemia is most common in the southeastern United States; Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma account for more than half of all reported cases in this country. Small outbreaks in higher-risk populations (e.g., professional ...