A Rare Case of Rabbit Fever Followed a Highway Collision with a Deer

The accident occurred when a deer, struck by another vehicle, was propelled through the man's windscreen. The impact left him with facial lacerations, exposing his skin to the animal’s blood, fluids, and roadside soil. Within a week, he suffered from fever, a skin lesion near his left eye, and severe neck swelling. Initial antibiotic treatments failed to curb the infection, and subsequent scans revealed large, deep-seated abscesses on his face.

Medical teams at the hospital eventually drained the abscesses and identified the pathogen as Francisella tularensis, the bacterium responsible for tularemia, or rabbit fever. Experts conclude the deer was a carrier of the disease, which transmitted directly into the man’s wounds upon impact. While tularemia can prove fatal if left untreated, the patient recovered after a transition to ciprofloxacin. A report published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases notes that while the patient remains largely healed three months later, he still experiences lingering facial discomfort.