Taipei: Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Tuesday reported a domestic case of tularemia, a zoonotic disease also known as rabbit fever, with the source of infection yet to be determined. The first such case in Taiwan since 2022 involved a woman in her 70s from southern Taiwan with multiple chronic illnesses, including hypertension and diabetes, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching said at a regular news briefing in Taipei.
According to Focus Taiwan, the woman developed a fever and fatigue on July 12 and was hospitalized two days later after experiencing chills, diarrhea, and difficulty urinating. Laboratory tests subsequently confirmed infection with Francisella tularensis, the bacterium that causes tularemia. Following treatment with antibiotics, the woman’s condition improved, and she was discharged in late July.
Epidemiological investigations found that the woman rarely left her home, had no contact with animals, and that there were no signs of potentially related animals, such as rats, near her residence. “In addition, none of her household contacts have shown related symptoms, so the source of her infection has yet to be determined,” Lin added.
Health authorities have disinfected the woman’s home and surrounding areas, and laboratories involved in the diagnosis have carried out cleaning procedures. Before the latest case, only two cases of tularemia had been reported in Taiwan since 2007, an imported case from the United States in 2011, and a domestic case in southern Taiwan around four years ago, CDC spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui said.
As a zoonotic disease, tularemia is carried by wild animal hosts such as rabbits and rats and can cause illness from even a very small amount of bacteria. There have been no reported cases of human-to-human transmission. In terms of animal-to-human transmission, tularemia can spread through bites from ticks and deer flies, contact with infected animal tissue, ingestion of contaminated food or water, or inhalation of dust contaminated with the bacteria. Inhalation infections caused by more virulent bacterial strains can have a fatality rate of 30-60 percent.
Meanwhile, the CDC reported the first imported case of brucellosis in 10 years, involving a man in his 50s from northern Taiwan who traveled to Xinjiang, China, in April and had contact with horses and sheep. He developed fever and chills in early July and was discharged from the hospital in early August after receiving antibiotic treatment. The agency also reported the death of a man in his 70s from meningococcal meningitis on Aug. 3, bringing Taiwan’s total number of confirmed cases this year to six, the highest for the same period in eight years.