'Rabbit fever' warning in Suffolk after 3 cases of tick-borne tularemia

Suffolk County health officials said Thursday they were aware of three probable cases of tularemia, a rare but serious illness that can be transmitted to people by ticks and flies from sick wild rabbits.

Sometimes known as rabbit fever, tularemia can cause high fever, swelling of the lymph nodes and sores where the person is bitten.

Tracey Detmer, of Riverhead, said her 9-year-old son, John, is still not 100% after being diagnosed with tularemia in May.

"His stamina is still low, his energy is low," she said. "His legs hurt and his neck still hurts at times. [Doctors] said it just takes time."

Detmer removed the tick from John’s head on April 23. In its place was a "massive lesion," she said.

"It was kind of on the bigger side but it wasn't a deer tick [which carry Lyme disease] so I wasn't too concerned," she said.

She saved the tick in a bag, as suggested by infectious disease experts, so it could be identified if needed. 

John came home from school the next day in pain from the swollen lymph glands in his neck, followed by 10 days of fever. He was given two rounds of doxycycline, an antibiotic. On May 20, the family was notified he had tularemia.

Detmer said the health department came to her yard to sweep for ticks. She was later told the one that bit her son may have been a dog tick.

In a statement, the Suffolk County Health Department said confirmation of a tularemia diagnosis requires "a combination of laboratory testing and fulfillment of specific clinical or epidemiologic criteria. The laboratory testing to confirm tularemia diagnosis may take several weeks."

State Health Department data shows there were four cases of tularemia in Suffolk County in 2024, three in 2023 and one in 2022. Nassau County reported one case in 2023 and has no cases so far this year. Data for 2025 is not yet available, officials said.

The number of cases across the United States has ranged between 150 and 200 in recent years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People can become infected with the bacteria that cause tularemia through the bite of a tick or fly that has had contact with a sick animal, including rodents, rabbits and hares; having skin contact with infected animals; drinking contaminated water; or inhaling contaminated aerosols or agriculture and landscaping dust, according to the CDC. 

"This infection does not transmit within a family, so an infected person cannot pass it from one to the other," said Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious disease at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital.

"These patients are quite sick, and they often come to the doctor or the emergency room with high fevers, an ulcer in their skin at the site of the bite and infected lymph nodes," Nachman said. "That is quite different from any of the other tick infections that we see here on Long Island."

Detmer, who has two other children, ages 7 and 4, said her family has always seen rabbits in their backyard and never realized they could be carrying bacteria that cause serious illness.

"We never thought anything of it," she said. "I used to tell them to stay out of the high grass [to stay away from ticks] and now I am telling them not to go anywhere near the rabbits."