Tularemia natural history, complications and prognosis
Please help WikiDoc by adding content here. It's easy! Click here to learn about editing.
|
Tularemia Microchapters |
|
Diagnosis |
|---|
|
Treatment |
|
Case Studies |
|
Tularemia natural history, complications and prognosis On the Web |
|
American Roentgen Ray Society Images of Tularemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
|
FDA on Tularemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
|
CDC on Tularemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
|
Tularemia natural history, complications and prognosis in the news |
|
Blogs on Tularemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
|
Risk calculators and risk factors for Tularemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
The disease has a very rapid onset, with headache, fatigue, dizziness, muscle pains, loss of appetite and nausea. Face and eyes redden and become inflamed. Inflammation spreads to the lymph nodes, which enlarge and may suppurate (mimicking bubonic plague). Lymph node involvement is accompanied by a high fever. Complications may include pneumonia, meningitis, endocarditis, hepatitis, sepsis, or osteomyelitis. The prognosis is usual good for common forms of tularemia. However a high mortality rate is associated with pneumonic and typhoidal variations.[2]
Natural History
- Infection typically begins with an incubation period of 3 to 6 days.
- Later clinical manifestations of the disease will display themselves in different ways depending on the type of infection. [1]
General Early Phase
Following an incubation of 3 to 6 days there is a sudden onset of flu-like symptoms including:
Progressive forms of tularemia
Following the early onset, general symptoms, tularemia will often present itself in a specific form. Specific forms of tularemia and their clinical manifestations may be found below:
Ulceroglandular
- Formation of a skin ulcer near the original site of infection; ulcer may persist for several months.
- Bacteria may travel throughout the body via the lymphatic system.
- Lymph nodes may swell resembling a clinical manifestation commonly associated with the bubonic plague.
- Fatality is less than 3 percent, even when left untreated. [1]
Oculoglandular
- Occurs when eyes are the site of infection.
- Ulcers develop on the conjuctiva, may spread to the lymph nodes. [1]
Oropharyngeal or Gastrointestinal tularemia
- Soreness in the throat
- Tonsil Enlargement
- Swollen cervical lymph nodes
- Depending on ulceration of the bowel, an infection may persist into an acute fatal disease.
Pneumonic and Typhoidal
- Pnuemonic disease occurs as a result of an inhalation-based infection.
- May also be the result of a spread of infection associated with other forms of tularemia.
- Pneumonic infection may occur without any obvious signs of infection, however typhoidal infection is associated with a fatality rate of 30-60%.
Complications
Due to the inflammation of membranes surrounding central nervous system, liver, and heart, the following complications have been associated with tularemia:
Other complications include:
Prognosis
- The prognosis is usually good for the common forms of tularemia.
- Ulceroglandular forms of tularemia usually heal after the course of several months.
- Even when left untreated ulceroglandular and glandular forms of tularemia are rarely fatal.
- Fatal forms of tularemia include pnuemonic and thyphoidal variations, with a mortality rate of 30-60%. [1]