Preventing Tularemia

Key points

  • People can become infected with tularemia in several ways, including tick and deer fly bites, contact with infected animals, drinking contaminated water, and inhaling contaminated aerosols or agricultural and landscaping dust.
  • Steps to prevent tularemia include preventing tick and deer fly bites and avoiding contact with sick or dead animals.
insect repellent being sprayed on a person's arm

Prevention tips

When hiking, camping, or working outdoors:

  • Use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD), or 2-undecanone. EPA's helpful search tool can help you find the product that best suits your needs. Always follow product instructions.
  • Wear long pants, long sleeves, and long socks to keep ticks and deer flies off your skin.
  • Remove attached ticks promptly with fine-tipped tweezers.
  • Don't drink untreated surface water.

When mowing or landscaping:

  • Don't mow over sick or dead animals. When possible, check the area for carcasses prior to mowing.
  • Use of masks during mowing and other landscaping activities may reduce your risk of inhaling the bacteria, but this has not been studied.

If you hunt, trap, or skin animals:

  • Use gloves when handling animals, especially rabbits, muskrats, prairie dogs, and other rodents.
  • Cook game meat thoroughly before eating.

Vaccine

Until recently, a vaccine has been available to protect laboratorians routinely working with Francisella tularensis. This vaccine is currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is not generally available in the United States.

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Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)