CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA) — A disease that can be harmful to people and animals is back in Champaign County.

Now, the public health district is doing what they can to make sure people in the area are being cautious. It’s called tularemia, or rabbit fever. It’s a disease caused by bacteria and could possibly be deadly. Typically, almost every year there’s a report of an animal testing positive for tularemia.

Robert Davies is the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District’s director of planning and research. Davies said there were several sick squirrels found in Urbana recently and some had died. After finding out one of them had tularemia, they had to take action.

“When this happens, we like to to raise awareness. You know, that it’s in the community and that there are things that we can do to prevent exposure,” Davies said.

Both people and animals can catch the disease. It can be life threatening to humans and pets like dogs, cats, livestock and more.

“Avoid mowing over dead animals. Let’s say if you mow over an infected dead animal, it can be aerosolized and you can breathe it in. That’s one way of contracting it,” Davies said.

He said you should also stay away from wildlife, drink water from a safe source, and stop pets from eating wild animals to name a few. Symptoms can range from a mild to severe flu-like sickness for both people and animals. That’s why Davies said you should always be cautious.

“Just because it was detected in Urbana doesn’t mean it’s not, you know, in other places. Like I said, in previous years, we’ve had reports come from Champaign, Urbana and Savoy. So the message is the same,” Davies said.

The health district said if you believe you may have the disease, make sure you contact your doctor.