Introduction:
Tularemia is the acute, contagious animal disease known by diff erent names: rodents’ plague, hare sickness or rabbit fever. Tularemia is caused by the Gram-negative bacilla - Francisella tularensis. The source of infection are mainly hares, wild rabbits, small rodents from forest and meadow, wild birds, water, and food. Vectors can be blood-sucking insects, e.g. mosquitos and ticks. Humans acquire infection through direct contact with infected animal tissues, ingestion (drinking contaminated water and eating contaminated food), inhalation, and through insect bites. Infection occurs in diff erent forms, such as typhoidal, oculoglandular, oropharyngeal, pneumonic, ulceroglandular (most common) and gastro-intestinal. Because Francisella tularensis is one of the most infectious bacteria, it may be used as a biological weapon. In some countries, tularemia is still a major epidemiological problem. The study presents the epidemiological situation of tularemia in Poland and worldwide. Maximum severity of cases of tularemia in the world was recorded in the period 1930-1950. Despite the downward tendency, new cases are still being recorded, and new epidemics emerge, the source of which are not only hares, but also water and food. In Poland, human tularemia was diagnosed for the fi rst time in 1949, the source of infection was probably a hare pelt. Every year, single cases of tularemia are registered, mainly in endemic areas. In Poland, during the period 1949 - 2009, 614 of tularemia cases were registered, including one fatal case noted in 1983.