Unilateral cervical mass: Tularemia

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Tularemia is a zoonotic disease caused by Francisella tularensis, a facultative, intracellular, gram-negative cocobacilli. Tularemia should come to mind in patients with fever, sore throat, conjunctivitis and cervical mass. Since the infectious agent is a fastidious and slow growing organism, it is difficult and time-consuming to isolate and identify bacteria in routine clinical laboratories. Because of its high contagious property for laboratory personel, its culture is difficult to handle. The diagnosis of tularemia is mainly based on the serological assays such as microagglutination or ELISA. The disease can be presented in six classic types: Ulceroglandular, glandular, oculoglandular, oropharyngeal, pneumonic and typhoidal. It should be taken into consideration in the case of patients with fever, sore throat and cervical masses which are especially unresponsive to beta-lactam antibiotic therapy and which come from an endemic area of tularemia. In this report, two cases of tularemia of patients admitted to the hospital with a cervical mass with ulceroglanduler and glandular involvement, diagnosed by serological tests are presented.

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Tularemia , unilateral cervical mass

Ege Journal Of Medicine

44

Ege Journal Of Medicine