[Tularemia--history, epidemiology, clinical aspects, diagnosis and therapy]

Tularemia was first described 90 years ago by McCoy as a disease of animals. At the beginning of twenties it was recognised by E. Francis as a disease transmittable from animals to man. Tularemia is caused by a gram-negative microbe Francisella tularensis. Epidemiological and clinical manifestations of the disease are highly diverse. The characteristic sign is the primary complex consisting from an initial ulceration and a regional lymphadenitis. In the Czech republic tularemia was first identified in 1936 in the south of Moravia and for the next years it occurred sporadically or in epidemic form also in the western Moravia, in north-west and east of Bohemia. It affected persons manipulating with the diseased animals, namely with hares, workers in animal farms and those working in cold sections of sugar mills. After a longer pause, during the last six years, the incidence of tularemia has increased again. That is why we decided to renew the understanding of the disease.