Minnesota typically reports an average of one human and two animal tularemia cases per year. But in 2024, the state confirmed infections in five people and 27 animals — a sharp increase from previous years.
All of the cases were identified in the seven-county Minneapolis-St. Paul area, but an investigation did not confirm a source of the rare bacterial disease, according to a CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published April 17.
Tularemia is a zoonotic disease that affects between 200 and 300 people in the U.S. every year, with most cases reported in central states.
Of the five human cases confirmed by the Minnesota Department of Health’s public health laboratory, four of the patients had the pneumonic form of tularemia. From 2000 to 2023, Minnesota reported 32 total cases, with just two pneumonic infections during that span.
All five patients were hospitalized for an average of six days. None died, the report said.
Given the unusual uptick in cases, health officials encouraged clinicians to consider tularemia in patients who have a fever and a history of tick or deer-fly bites, contact with sick animals, or exposure to rabbits or rodents while mowing.
