Clinical, epidemiological and therapeutical experience with human tularaemia: the role of hamster hunters.

Fifty patients suffering from tularaemia were treated in our department. The most frequent occupation of the tularaemia patients was hamster hunter. The most important source of the tularaemic infection (90%) was the hamster (Cricetus cricetus). We observed the cutano-glandular form in 90% of the patients and internal tularaemia in 10%. The antibiotics used (streptomycin i. m., oxytetracycline and doxycycline per os) were effective.