ABSTRACT

Francisella tularensis

. The first observed clinical cases were seen in Japan in 1837, in which people eating meat from rabbits developed fever, chills, and glandular tumors [1]. In the United States, Dr. Edward Francis first described the disease in 1911 in Tulare County, California, as a plague-like illness in ground squirrels. The first human case described in the United States occurred in 1914 in a butcher [2]. Dr. Francis, for whom the microorganism was named, characterized the clinical signs, symptoms, and mode of transmission after infection.