Buruli Ulcer: New possibilities for the prevention of the
disease The Buruli Ulcer is an extremely debilitating skin
disease, in full emergence in West Africa. The first results of
a case-control study of factors associates with the development
underway in the endemic region by the Centre Pasteur du
Cameroun, in collaboration with the researchers of many other
teams, published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, confirm
the presence of the already suspected risk factors and suggest
the protective role of the use of mosquito screens. Declared as
an emerging disease by the WHO in 1998, Buruli Ulcer is caused
by a mycobacteria, Mycobacterium ulcerans. Over recent years,
this disease has become the third mycobacteriosis after leprosy
and tuberculosis. It is rife in humid tropical regions and
manifests initially in the form of a nodule, developing later
into vast skin ulcerations caused by a toxin secreted by M.
ulcerans. Left untreated, afflicted individuals develop serious
disabilities: such as significant limi