Medical Response

Tularemia presents as a systemic febrile illness and diagnosis may be made by culture of body fluid or serologic tests. Tularemia is easily treatable with antibiotics as long as victims receive treatment quickly. If a patient is not treated, the fatality rate can exceed 30 percent. Isolation is not recommended for tularemia patients because it is not transmitted from person to person.

It is a United States Public Health Service requirement that all suspected tularemia cases be reported to state and local health departments and the diagnosis confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

• Tärnvik A, and Chu, MC. "New Approaches to diagnosis and therapy of Tularemia." Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1105(June 2007): 378-404. Concludes that the clinical handling of tularemia is currently facilitated by new achievements in molecular diagnostics and, at least with regard to type B tularemia, by the introduction of quinolones for therapy.
• Evans M.E., and A.M. Friedlander. "Tularemia." Textbook of Military Medicine: Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare (1997). Provides a thorough medical description of the disease including epidemiology, pathogenesis, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.