Clinical Microbiology Newsletter
Volume 31, Issue 16 , Pages 119-127 , 15 August 2009

Buruli Ulcer (Mycobacterium ulcerans Infection): a Re-emerging Disease

  • Douglas S. Walsh, M.D.

      Affiliations

    • KEMRI/Walter Reed Project, United States Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya, Kisumu, Kenya
    • Corresponding Author InformationMailing address: Dr. Walsh, Walter Reed Project, PO Box 54, Kisumu, 10400, Kenya. TEL: +254-57-20-22942. FAX: +254-57-20-22903
  • ,
  • Françoise Portaels, Ph.D

      Affiliations

    • Department of Environmental and Infectious Disease Sciences, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C.
  • ,
  • Wayne M. Meyers, M.D., Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Department of Microbiology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

References 

  1. MacCallum P , et al.   A new mycobacterial infection in man . J. Pathol. Bacteriol. . 1948;60:93–122
  2. Dodge OG , Lunn HF . Buruli ulcer: a mycobacterial skin ulcer in a Uganda child . J. Trop. Med. Hyg. . 1962;65:139–142
  3. Dodge OG . Mycobacterial skin ulcers in Uganda: histopathological and experimental aspects . J. Pathol. Bacteriol. . 1964;88:167–174
  4. Walsh DS , Portaels F , Meyers WM . Buruli ulcer (Mycobacterium ulcerans infection) . Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. . 2008;102:969–978
  5. Portaels F , et al.   First cultivation and characterization of Mycobacterium ulcerans from the environment . PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. . 2008;2:e178
  6. World Health Organization  . Buruli ulcer progress report, 2004-2008 . Wkly. Epidemiol. Rec. . 2008;83:145–154
  7. Aujoulat I , et al.   Psychosocial aspects of health seeking behaviours of patients with Buruli ulcer in southern Benin . Trop. Med. Int. Health . 2003;8:750–759
  8. Debacker M , et al.   Mycobacterium ulcerans disease (Buruli ulcer) in a rural hospital, Southern Benin, 1997–2001 . Emerg. Infect. Dis. . 2004;10:1391–1398
  9. Moran M , et al.   Neglected disease research and development: how much are we really spending? . PLoS Med. . 2009;6:e30
  10. Meyers WM , Shelly WM , Connor DH . Heat treatment of Mycobacterium ulcerans infections without surgical excision . Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. . 1974;23:924–929
  11. Eddyani M , et al.   Primary culture of Mycobacterium ulcerans from human tissue specimens after storage in semisolid transport medium . J. Clin. Microbiol. . 2008;46:69–72
  12. Stinear T , et al.   Identification of Mycobacterium ulcerans in the environment from regions in Southeast Australia in which it is endemic with sequence capture-PCR . Appl. Environ. Microbiol. . 2000;66:3206–3213
  13. George KM , et al.   Mycolactone: a polyketide toxin from Mycobacterium ulcerans required for virulence . Science . 1999;283:854–857
  14. Connor DH , Lunn HF . Mycobacterium ulcerans infection (with comments on pathogenesis) . Int. J. Lepr. . 1965;33:698–709
  15. Stinear TP , et al.   Giant plasmid-encoded polyketide synthases produce the macrolide toxin of Mycobacterium ulcerans. . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA . 2004;101:1345–1349
  16. Tafelmeyer P , et al.   Comprehensive proteome analysis of Mycobacterium ulcerans and quantitative comparison of mycolactone biosynthesis . Proteomics . 2008;8:3124–3138
  17. Portaels F , et al.   Variability in 3′ end of 16S rRNA sequence of Mycobacterium ulcerans is related to geographic origin of isolates . J. Clin. Microbiol. . 1996;34:962–965
  18. Demangel C , Stinear TP , Cole ST . Buruli ulcer: reductive evolution enhances pathogenicity of Mycobacterium ulcerans . Nat. Rev. Microbiol. . 2009;7:50–60
  19. Stinear T , et al.   Identification and characterization of IS2404 and IS2606: two distinct repeated sequences for detection of Mycobacterium ulcerans by PCR . J. Clin. Microbiol. . 1999;37:1018–1023
  20. Stragier P , et al.   Heterogeneity among Mycobacterium ulcerans isolates from Africa . Emerg. Infect. Dis. . 2006;12:844–847
  21. Wagner T , et al.   A landscape-based model for predicting Mycobacterium ulcerans infection (Buruli Ulcer disease) presence in Benin, West Africa . Ecohealth . 2008;5:69–79
  22. Brou T , et al.   Landscape diversity related to Buruli ulcer disease in Cote d'Ivoire . PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. . 2008;2:e271
  23. Meyers WM , et al.   Mycobacterium ulcerans infection (Buruli ulcer): first reported patients in Togo . Br. J. Dermatol. . 1996;134:1116–1121
  24. Kibadi K , et al.   New foci of Buruli ulcer, Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo . Emerg. Infect. Dis. . 2008;14:1790–1792
  25. Debacker M , et al.   Mycobacterium ulcerans disease: role of age and gender in incidence and morbidity . Trop. Med. Int. Health . 2004;9:1297–1304
  26. Stienstra Y , et al.   Susceptibility to Buruli ulcer is associated with the SLC11A1 (NRAMP1) D543N polymorphism . Genes Immun. . 2006;7:185–189
  27. Portaels F , et al.   Insects in the transmission of Mycobacterium ulcerans. . Lancet . 1999;353:986
  28. Marsollier L , et al.   Colonization of the salivary glands of Naucoris cimicoides by Mycobacterium ulcerans requires host plasmatocytes and a macrolide toxin, mycolactone . Cell Microbiol. . 2005;7:935–943
  29. Johnson PD , et al.   Mycobacterium ulcerans in mosquitoes captured during outbreak of Buruli ulcer, southeastern Australia . Emerg. Infect. Dis. . 2007;13:1653–1660
  30. Johnson RC , et al.   Association of HIV infection and Mycobacterium ulcerans disease in Benin . AIDS . 2008;22:901–903
  31. Meyers WM , et al.   Human Mycobacterium ulcerans infections developing at sites of trauma to skin . Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. . 1974;23:919–923
  32. Pouillot R , et al.   Risk factors for Buruli ulcer: a case control study in Cameroon . PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. . 2007;1:e101
  33. Walsh DS , et al.   High rates of apoptosis in human Mycobacterium ulcerans culture positive Buruli ulcer skin lesions . Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. . 2005;73:410–415
  34. Adusumilli S , et al.   Mycobacterium ulcerans toxic macrolide, mycolactone, modulates the host immune response and cellular location of M. ulcerans in vitro and in vivo . Cell Microbiol. . 2005;7:1295–1304
  35. Hong H , et al.   Mycolactone diffuses from Mycobacterium ulcerans-infected tissues and targets mononuclear cells in peripheral blood and lymphoid organs . PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. . 2008;2:e325
  36. Meyers WM . Mycobacterial infections of the skin . In:  Doerr W ,  Seifert G editor. Tropical pathology . Berlin: Springer-Verlag; 1995;
  37. Kiszewski AE , et al.   The local immune response in ulcerative lesions of Buruli disease . Clin. Exp. Immunol. . 2006;143:445–451
  38. Stanford JL , et al.   The production and preliminary investigation of Burulin, a new skin test reagent for Mycobacterium ulcerans infection . J. Hyg. (London) . 1975;74:7–16
  39. Sarfo FS , et al.   Dynamics of the cytokine response to M. ulcerans during antibiotic treatment for human M. ulcerans disease (Buruli ulcer) . Clin. Vaccine Immunol. . 2008;16:61–65
  40. Schutte D , Umboock A , Pluschke G . Phagocytosis of Mycobacterium ulcerans in the course of rifampicin and streptomycin chemotherapy in Buruli ulcer lesions . Br. J. Dermatol. . 2008;160:273–283
  41. Guarner J , et al.   Histopathologic features of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection . Emerg. Infect. Dis. . 2003;9:651–656
  42. Meyers WM . Leprosy and Buruli ulcer: the major cutaneous mycobacterioses . In:  Feigin RD , et al. editor. Textbook of pediatric infectious diseases . vol. 1: Philadelphia: Kaplan Saunders; 2004;
  43. Read JK , et al.   Cytotoxic activity of Mycobacterium ulcerans. . Infect. Immun. . 1974;9:1114–1122
  44. Walsh DS , et al.   Transmission of Mycobacterium ulcerans to the nine-banded armadillo . Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. . 1999;61:694–697
  45. Walsh GP , et al.   The Philippine cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) provides a new nonhuman primate model of tuberculosis that resembles human disease . Nat Med . 1996;2:430–436
  46. Walsh DS , et al.   Clinical and histological features of skin lesions in a cynomolgus monkey experimentally infected with Mycobacterium ulcerans (Buruli ulcer) by intradermal inoculation . Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. . 2007;76:132–134
  47. World Health Organization  . Provisional guidance on the role of specific antibiotics in the management of Mycobacterium ulcerans disease (Buruli ulcer). (WHO/CDS/CPE/GBUI/2004) . Geneva: World Health Organization; 2004;
  48. Portaels F , Silva MT , Meyers WM . Buruli ulcer . Clin. Dermatol. . 2009;27:291–305
  49. Wansbrough-Jones M , Phillips R . Buruli ulcer: emerging from obscurity . Lancet . 2006;367:1849–1858
  50. World Health Organization  . Buruli ulcer: prevention of disability (POD) (WHO/CDS/NTD/GBUI/2006.12) . Geneva: World Health Organization; 2006;
  51. O'Brien DP , et al.   Outcomes for Mycobacterium ulcerans infection with combined surgery and antibiotic therapy: findings from a south-eastern Australian case series . Med. J. Aust. . 2007;186:58–61
  52. World Health Organization  . Buruli ulcer: progress report, 2004-2008 . Wkly. Epidemiol. Rec. . 2008;83:145–154
  53. Chauty A , et al.   Promising clinical efficacy of streptomycin-rifampin combination for treatment of buruli ulcer (Mycobacterium ulcerans disease) . Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. . 2007;51:4029–4035
  54. Ji B , et al.   Bactericidal and sterilizing activities of several orally administered combined regimens against Mycobacterium ulcerans in mice . Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. . 2008;52:1912–1916
  55. Dossou AD , et al.   Management of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection in a pregnant woman in Benin using rifampicin and clarithromycin . Med. J. Aust. . 2008;189:532–533
  56. Krieg RE , Wolcott JH , Confer A . Treatment of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection by hyperbaric oxygenation . Aviat. Space Environ. Med . 1975;46:1241–1245
  57. Quek TY , et al.   Risk factors for Mycobacterium ulcerans infection, southeastern Australia . Emerg Infect Dis. . 2007;13:1661–1666
  58. Portaels F , et al.   Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccination as prophylaxis against Mycobacterium ulcerans osteomyelitis in Buruli ulcer disease . Infect. Immun. . 2004;72:62–65
  59. Huygen K , et al.   Buruli ulcer disease: prospects for a vaccine . Med. Microbiol. Immunol. . 2009;198:69–77

PII: S0196-4399(09)00037-3

doi: 10.1016/j.clinmicnews.2009.07.004

Clinical Microbiology Newsletter
Volume 31, Issue 16 , Pages 119-127 , 15 August 2009