Tularemia is an illness caused by a bacteria. It results in fever, rash, and greatly enlarged lymph nodes.

Tularemia infects a variety of wild animals, including rabbits, deer, squirrels, muskrat, and beaver. Humans can acquire the bacteria directly from contact with the blood or body fluids of these animals, from the bite of a tick or fly which has previously fed on the blood of an infected animal, or from contaminated food or water.

Tularemia occurs most often in the summer months. It is most likely to infect people who come into contact with infected animals, including hunters, furriers, butchers, laboratory workers, game wardens, and veterinarians. In the United States, the vast majority of cases of tularemia occur in the southeastern and Rocky Mountain states.

Five types of illness may occur, depending on where/how the bacteria enter the body:

• Ulceroglandular/Glandular tularemias comprise 75-85% of all cases...