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Tularemia - Treatment

Alternative Names

Deerfly fever; Rabbit fever; Pahvant Valley plague; Ohara disease; Yatobyo (Japan); Lemming fever

Treatment:

The goal of treatment is to cure the infection with antibiotic treatment. Streptomycin and tetracycline are commonly used to treat this infection. Once daily gentamycin treatment has been tried with excellent results as an alternative therapy to streptomycin, though only a few cases have been studied to date.

Note: oral tetracycline is usually not prescribed for children until after all their permanent teeth have erupted. It can permanently discolor teeth that are still forming.

Expectations (prognosis):

Tularemia is fatal in about 5% of untreated cases, and in less than 1% of treated cases.

Complications:

Calling your health care provider:

Call your health care provider if symptoms develop after a rodent bite, tick bite, or exposure to the flesh of a wild animal.

Deer ticks

Ticks

Tick imbedded in the skin

Antibodies

Reviewed last on: 1/29/2007
D. Scott Smith, M.D., MSc, DTM&H, Chief of Infectious Disease & Geographic Medicine, Kaiser Redwood City, CA & Adjunct Assistant Professor, Stanford University. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

References

Eliasson H, Broman T, Forsman M, Back E. Tularemia: current epidemiology and disease management. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2006. Jun;20(2):289-311, ix.

Hassoun A, Spera R, Dunkel J. Tularemia and Once-Daily Gentamicin. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 2006; 50(2),824.

Cronquist SD. Tularemia: the disease and the weapon. Dermatol Clin. 2004; 22(3): 313-20, vi-vii.

Long SS, Pickering LK, Prober CG. Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Elsevier; 2003:917.

Cohen J, Powderly WG. Infectious Diseases. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Elsevier; 2004:1649-1653.

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