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This Podcast Will Kill You

Ep 121 Tularemia: Hare today, gone tomorrow

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.817.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2023

⏱️ 84 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The CDC’s list of highest priority bioterrorism agents is a short one, with only six pathogens making the cut. Among the more familiar names on the list, such as anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, and viral hemorrhagic fevers, is the topic of today’s episode: Francisella tularensis. Unless you’re a hunter or work with small mammals, you may not recognize the name of this pathogen or the disease it causes - tularemia - let alone the characteristics that earned it a place on the CDC’s list. By the end of this episode, though, all that will have changed. Join us as we explore why this pathogen’s brutal biology makes it a force to be reckoned with, how the history of its discovery has surprising origins in the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and what promises future research may hold for protection against this deadly disease.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Many put their hope in Dr. Serhat.

0:02.6

His company was worth half a billion dollars.

0:05.2

His research promised groundbreaking treatments for HIV and cancer.

0:09.5

But the brilliant doctor was hiding a secret.

0:12.9

You can listen to Doctor Death, bad magic,

0:15.4

exclusively an ad free by subscribing to Wundry Plus in the Wundry app.

0:20.4

E.F. male, age 49, physician, began investigations of Tularemia in Delta Utah, July 23rd,

0:27.0

1919. His exposure differs from the other cases to be reported in that in addition to exposure to laboratory

0:34.9

animals he took blood and pus on two occasions from a human case which

0:39.8

terminated fatally. On the 30th day of his investigation, August 23rd, 1919,

0:46.0

E.F. became ill in the late afternoon, feeling tired and weak and having a

0:50.9

temperature of 102.2 degrees. His fever continued until the 24th day.

0:57.3

During the first 12 days of his illness, he packed up his laboratory equipment and animals in Utah

1:02.4

with great difficulty and proceeded with them to Washington, D.C.

1:06.5

And after his arrival, made a futile attempt to continue work.

1:10.5

The next 14 days he spent in the hospital lying on the bed but not confined to the bed.

1:16.0

The departure of the patient from the hospital on the 28th day was attended with some forced exercise,

1:22.0

which resulted in a secondary rise of temperature which lasted four days after which it remained normal.

1:29.0

The second month was spent in a hotel, lying on the bed most of the time. The third month was one of slow convalescence.

1:38.0

Throughout the illness there was an absence of localized pain or tenderness,

1:42.0

except that on the 16th day of illness a sore throat developed

1:45.4

on the right side.

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