What does tularemia do to humans?

What does tularemia do to humans?

Tularemia has the potential to affect various organ systems of the body including the central nervous system, heart, and liver resulting in inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis), inflammation of the lining of the heart (endocarditis), and inflammation of the liver (hepatitis).

What are the symptoms of tularemia?

Symptoms include cough, chest pain, and difficulty breathing. This form results from breathing dusts or aerosols containing the organism. It can also occur when other forms of tularemia (e.g. ulceroglandular) are left untreated and the bacteria spread through the bloodstream to the lungs.

How do you get tularemia?

How do people become infected with tularemia? A. Typically, people become infected through the bite of infected insects (most commonly, ticks and deerflies), by handling infected sick or dead animals, by eating or drinking contaminated food or water, or by inhaling airborne bacteria.

Can tularemia be cured?

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.

How do animals get tularemia?

The bacteria can live for long periods of time (weeks to months) in soil, vegetation and water and serve as a source of infection for other animals or humans. Animals get tularemia by ingesting (oral) contaminated food (raw meat from infected animals) or drinking contaminated water.

Does tularemia go away on its own?

Fever may be high, and may go away for a short time only to return. Untreated, the fever usually lasts about four weeks. Other symptoms depend on the type of tularemia. In ulceroglandular tularemia, a red nodule appears at the site of inoculation and eventually forms an open sore associated with swollen lymph nodes.

How long can you have tularemia?

Most people exposed to tularemia who become sick generally do so within three to five days, although it can take as long as 21 days. There are several types of tularemia, and which type you get depends on how and where the bacteria enter the body. Each type of tularemia has its own set of symptoms.

Can tularemia go away on its own?

What happens if tularemia goes untreated?

Left untreated, tularemia can be fatal. Other possible complications include: Inflammation of the lungs (pneumonia). Pneumonia can lead to respiratory failure — a condition in which the lungs don’t take in enough oxygen, don’t release enough carbon dioxide or both.

Can you cook out tularemia?

Heat kills F. tularensis, so cook meat to the right temperature — a minimum of 160 F (71.1 C) for ground meat and game meat — to make it safe to eat. Poultry should be cooked to 165 F (73.8 C).

Can you get tularemia from eating rabbit?

Tularemia can also be transmitted through consumption of meat that is not thoroughly cooked, so be sure to heat rabbit meat to a safe temperature that kills any potential disease (minimum of 165 degrees Fahrenheit).

Can you eat the meat of an animal with tularemia?

Can I Eat The Meat? Meat from animals that die of tularemia should not be consumed by humans. Normal cooking temperatures will kill bacteria in the meat. Management of tularemia is not practical or feasible in wild animals.

Most cases of tularemia begin with rapid onset of nonspecific, flu-like symptoms including fever, chills, headaches, muscle pain (myalgia), joint pain (arthralgia), loss of appetite, and a general feeling of ill health (malaise).

How does tularemia attack and spread?

The most common way tularemia is spread is by the bite of an infected blood-sucking insect such as a deerfly or tick. Another way people become infected with tularemia is by getting blood or tissue from infected animals (especially rabbits) in their eyes, mouth, or in cuts or scratches on the skin.

What does tularemia mean?

Definition of tularemia. : an infectious disease especially of wild rabbits, rodents, some domestic animals, and humans that is caused by a bacterium ( Francisella tularensis ), is transmitted especially by the bites of insects, and in humans is marked by symptoms (such as fever) of toxemia. — called also rabbit fever.

How does tularemia spread?

Tularemia spreads to humans through several routes, including insect bites and direct exposure to an infected animal. Highly contagious and potentially fatal, tularemia usually can be treated effectively with specific antibiotics if diagnosed early.