RABBIT FEVER-Watsons Health

RABBIT FEVER

Rabbit fever, deer fly fever, or commonly known as Tularemia, is a rare infectious disease. This condition usually attacks the skin, eyes, lymph nodes and lungs.This infection is caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis.

Mammals like rodents, rabbits and hares are primarily affected.Sometimes it also infect birds, sheep, and domestic animals, such as dogs, cats and hamsters.

You can get tularemia when you have direct exposure to an infected animal or if you have insect bites. This is a highly contagious and potentially fatal condition. However,with antibiotics and early diagnosis, you can effectively treat tularemia.

TYPES

Types of tularemia include the following:

  • Ulceroglandular tularemia
  • Glandular tularemia
  • Oropharyngeal tularemia
  • Pneumonic tularemia
  • Typhoidal tularemia

SYMPTOMS

Signs and symptoms of tularemia may appear within 4-5 days, and can even last for 14 days. It is important to notice early symptoms of this infectious disease, so that you can seek treatment immediately.

Below are some symptoms of tularemia based on their types:

Ulceroglandular tularemia

This is the most common form of the disease. Signs and symptoms include:

  • Chills
  • Headache
  • Exhaustion
  • A skin ulcer that forms at the site of infection, usually from an insect or animal bite
  • Swollen and painful lymph glands
  • Fever

Glandular tularemia

Glandular tularemia has the same signs and symptoms with ulceroglandular tularemia, but without skin ulcers.

Oculoglandular tularemia

This primarily affects the eyes and may cause:

  • Eye pain
  • Eye redness
  • Eye swelling and discharge
  • An ulcer on the inside of the eyelid
  • Sensitivity to light

Oropharyngeal tularemia

This disease usually affects the mouth, throat and digestive tract. It is caused by eating poorly cooked wild animal meat or drinking contaminated water. Signs and symptoms include:

  • Fever
  • Throat pain
  • Mouth ulcers
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Inflamed tonsils
  • Swollen lymph nodes in the neck

Pneumonic tularemia

This type of tularemia causes signs and symptoms typical of pneumonia:

  • Dry cough
  • Chest pain
  • Difficulty breathing

Other forms of tularemia also can spread to the lungs.

Typhoidal tularemia

This rare and serious form of the disease usually causes:

DIAGNOSIS

To diagnose this condition, doctors may check for F. tularensis in a blood or sputum sample that is cultured to encourage the growth of bacteria.

The antibodies to the bacteria in a sample of blood can identify tularemia, but these antibodies only develop several weeks after infection. Chest X-ray is also recommended to check signs of pneumonia.

 

TREATMENT

Specific antibiotics such as streptomycin or gentamicin will be injected directly into the muscle or vein to effectively treat tularemia.

Oral antibiotics such as doxycycline may be prescribed depending of the type of tularemia that you have.

You should be immune to tularemia after recovering from the disease, so that you can avoid  recurrence or reinfection.

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