[Prevalence of epidemic outbreak of tularemia in the Hospital Universitario Río Hortega (Spain) in the year 2007].
BACKGROUND
This present research study presents the analytic results of an outbreak of tularemia (Francisella tularensis) that occurred in the Northwest areas of Castilla y León in Northern Spain in late June 2007.


METHODS
Serum was obtained from 302 patients from a West Valladolid health area, attended in the University Hospital of Río Hortega of the Castilla y León Health Care Service, with suspicion of tularemia. A tube agglutination test was performed in all of them to detect anti-F. tularensis antibodies.


RESULTS
Anti-F. tularensis antibodies were detected in 59 (19%) of reported cases (302 sera). The most frequent clinical presentations of the disease suggest that the main transmission pathway was through inhalation of the bacteria.


CONCLUSIONS
When the 2007 outbreak of human tularemia was compared with that which occurred in 1997, we observed a lower number of positive cases in the recent outbreak as well as a difference in the transmission pathway and predominant form of clinical presentation of the disease.
Martín-Rodríguez
L
L
Laboratorio de Inmunología, Servicio de Análisis Clínicos, Hospital Universitario Río Hortega, SACYL, Valladolid, España. lourma04@yahoo.es
Iglesias-García
R
R
Del Río-Martín
M
M
Mazón-Ramos
M A
MA
Arranz-Peña
M L
ML
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D005604:Francisella tularensis / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D014406:Tularemia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial