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Tularemia (Francisella tularensis)
1996 Case Definition

Tularemia (Francisella tularensis)
1996 Case Definition
NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.

Clinical Description

An illness characterized by several distinct forms, including the following:

  • Ulceroglandular: cutaneous ulcer with regional lymphadenopathy
  • Glandular: regional lymphadenopathy with no ulcer
  • Oculoglandular: conjunctivitis with preauricular lymphadenopathy
  • Oropharyngeal: stomatitis or pharyngitis or tonsillitis and cervical lymphadenopathy
  • Intestinal: intestinal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea
  • Pneumonic: primary pleuropulmonary disease
  • Typhoidal: febrile illness without early localizing signs and symptoms

Clinical diagnosis is supported by evidence or history of a tick or deerfly bite, exposure to tissues of a mammalian host of Francisella tularensis, or exposure to potentially contaminated water.

Laboratory Criteria For Diagnosis

Presumptive

  • Elevated serum antibody titer(s) to F. tularensis antigen (without documented fourfold or greater change) in a patient with no history of tularemia vaccination, OR
  • Detection of F. tularensis in a clinical specimen by fluorescent assay

Confirmatory

  • Isolation of F. tularensis in a clinical specimen, OR
  • Fourfold or greater change in serum antibody titer to F. tularensis antigen

Case Classification

Probable

A clinically compatible case with laboratory results indicative of presumptive infection

Confirmed

A clinically compatible case with confirmatory laboratory results

Related Case Definition(s)

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Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology

National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)

NNDSS receives and shares case data from state, local, and territorial health departments to help public health monitor, control, and prevent serious diseases.

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