Treating Mycobacterium Ulcerans Disease (Buruli Ulcer): from Surgery to Antibiotics, is the Pill Mightier Than the Knife?

Overview

Journal Future Microbiol

Specialties Infectious Diseases
Microbiology

Date 2011 Oct 19

PMID 22004037

Citations 29

Authors

Paul J Converse

Eric L Nuermberger

Deepak V Almeida

Jacques H Grosset

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Until 2004, the skin disease known as Buruli ulcer, caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, could only be treated by surgery and skin grafting. Although this worked reasonably well on early lesions typically found in patients in Australia, the strategy was usually impractical on large lesions resulting from diagnostic delay in patients in rural West Africa. Based on promising preclinical studies, treatment trials in West Africa have shown that a combination of rifampin and streptomycin administered daily for 8 weeks can kill M. ulcerans bacilli, arrest the disease, and promote healing without relapse or reduce the extent of surgical excision. Improved treatment options are the focus of research that has increased tremendously since the WHO began its Global Buruli Ulcer Initiative in 1998.

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