2001

Pneumonic tularemia is back. Confirming this year's first case of the pneumonic form of the disease, public health officials said yesterday they are prepared to call in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate.

A four-year-old boy from Newton is this year's first confirmed case of tularemia on the Vineyard, but state and Island health officials stopped far short of sounding an alarm this week over a new outbreak of the rare bacterial infection.

Tissue samples taken last September from a Chilmark skunk and a Katama rat tested positive for tularemia, the rare disease that infected 15 people on the Island last year, killing one man who did not seek medical attention in time.

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