PURPOSE We describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics and the efficacy of a delayed initiation to therapy in an oropharyngeal tularemia outbreak in Duzce, Turkey. MATERIALS AND METHODS Between March and June 2000, 22 patients with tularemia were diagnosed by microagglutination tests. RESULTS Oropharyngeal and ulceroglandular forms of the disease were discovered. Most of the c...

Tularemia is a highly contagious infectious zoonosis caused by the bacterial agent Francisella tularensis. Serology is still considered to be a cornerstone in tularemia diagnosis due to the low sensitivity of bacterial culture and the lack of standardization in PCR methodology for the direct identification of the pathogen. We developed a novel immunochromatographic test (ICT) to efficiently det...

F rancisella tularensis was first isolated in 1912 from rodents suffering from a plague-like disease in Tulare County, Calif. Subsequently, investigators learned that this small, gram-negative bacterium infects many animal species and is associated with a wide range of diseases. In humans, the bacterium causes a serious, sometimes fatal disease, called tularemia, which is also known as rabbit f...

A rapidly fatal case of pulmonary tularemia in a 43-year-old man who was transferred to a tertiary care facility is presented. The microbiology laboratory and autopsy services were not notified of the clinical suspicion of tularemia by the service caring for the patient. Despite having a laboratory bioterrorism procedure in place and adhering to established laboratory protocol, 12 microbiology ...

Introduction Tularemia and spotted fever group rickettsioses (SFG) can be transmitted by ticks and have a number of common clinical symptoms. Most characteristic are a maculopapular or vesicular rash or an eschar at the site of the tick or insect bite accompanied by painful lymph nodes. The aim of this study was to determine whether Rickettsia spp./Francisella tularensis mixed infections occurr...

The bacterium Francisella tularensis causes the vector-borne zoonotic disease tularemia, and may infect a wide range of hosts including invertebrates, mammals and birds. Transmission to humans occurs through contact with infected animals or contaminated environments, or through arthropod vectors. Tularemia has a broad geographical distribution, and there is evidence which suggests local emergen...

PCR and culture were comparatively evaluated for their abilities to demonstrate Francisella tularensis in wound specimens from tularemia patients during an outbreak in Sweden in 1998. For transport of the specimens used for PCR, a buffer solution containing a nuclease inhibitor was used, and for transport of the specimens used for culture, a commercial transport system was selected after experi...

The aim of this study was to investigate a tularemia outbreak in the Thrace region of Turkey. The outbreak occurred in Demirkoy village of Edirne, in 2005. Of 400 villagers, 266 were examined and their sera were taken. Throat swabs and lymph node aspirates were cultured. Specific antibodies in patients and domestic animals were screened by a microagglutination test. PCR assays and cultures of t...