ABSTRACT
HISTORY/EPIDEMIOLOGY/CLINICAL Tularemia, a zoonotic infection caused by Francisella tularensis, is an infection of the northern hemisphere with highly localized endemic foci. It was first reported byMcCoy in 1911 as a disease of ground squirrels dying of a plague-like disease in Tulare County, California. The first reported human cases of tularemia were reported in 1914. Clinical disease most commonly manifests as a cutaneous infection in individuals exposed to infected animals or bitten by arthropods (e.g., ticks) that carry the bacteria. In 1942, Francis estimated that two-thirds of all American cases of tularemia were linked to contacts with cottontail rabbits (1). It has been stated that ‘‘. . .no other infection of animals communicable to man . . . can be acquired from sources so numerous and so diverse’’ (2).
