Characteristics of Tularemia in Kosovo 2010
Characteristics of Tularemia in Kosovo 2010

Summary/Abstract: Beckground: Francisella tularensis is a gram-negative zoonotic pathogen primarily of animals and occasionally of humans.The disease is now recognized as tularemia in most parts of the world, but it has been called rabbit fever, deer-fly fever, and market men’s disease in the United States; wild hare disease (yato-byo) and Ohara’s disease in Japan; and water-rat trappers’ disease in Russia. Tularemia continues to be responsible for significant mor-bidity and mortality, despite the availability of numerous antibio-tics active against the organism.The first cases of tularemia in Kosovo are reported in the southwestern part of Kosovo, in the region of Gjakova in April 2000 in the village of Brovina - 22 patients who were infected through contaminated well water. In the meantime disease is spread in villages of Skivjan, Korenica, Batusha and later throug-hout Kosovo. Aim: The aim of this study is presentation of characteristics of Tularemia in Kosovo in 2010 and analyzes of the epidemiological, clinical and treatment features of Tularemia in Kosovo. Methods: We analyzed 53 cases of tularemia (from 320 patients with tularemia in Kosovo in 2010) that were from 12 municipali-ties of Kosovo. The largest number of patients were from Munici-pality of Vushtria (11 patients) and municipality of Skenderaj (9 patients). All these cases were from rural areas; this confirms that social and epidemiological conditions are very important for appearance of this disease. We have analyzed the data from their medical histories, which includes their medical anamnesis, clinical examination, laboratory tests and their treatment. Results: The mean age of patients was 22 years, 13 patients we-re children under the age of 10 years. Patients were hospitalized an average of 14.7 days, while incubation time of the disease was an averaging of 28 days. Social and epidemiologic conditions were important fac-tors in the appearance of the disease; 29 patients were water supplied only from

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