Gerd Pluschke • Katharina Röltgen Editors

2019

Mycobacterium Ulcerans Disease

Within the 20 years after WHO has launched the Global Buruli Ulcer Initiative in 1998, considerable progress has been made toward the understanding and the control of this neglected, once mysterious, tropical skin disease. Major practical achievements were the evaluation and successful introduction of an antibiotic therapy consisting of oral rifampicin and injected streptomycin administered daily for 8  weeks, the development of a PCR-based diagnostic test to detect DNA of the causative agent Mycobacterium ulcerans in lesion specimens, and the establishment of national Buruli ulcer control programs in the most endemic West and Central African countries.