Geographic distribution, age pattern and sites of lesions in a cohort of Buruli ulcer patients from the Mapé Basin of Cameroon

Buruli ulcer (BU), a neglected tropical disease of the skin, caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, occurs most frequently in children in West Africa. Risk factors for BU include proximity to slow flowing water, poor wound care and not wearing protective clothing. Man-made alterations of the environment...

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Veröffentlicht in:PLoS neglected tropical diseases 2013-06, Vol.7 (6), p.e2252-e2252
Hauptverfasser: Bratschi, Martin W, Bolz, Miriam, Minyem, Jacques C, Grize, Leticia, Wantong, Fidèle G, Kerber, Sarah, Njih Tabah, Earnest, Ruf, Marie-Thérèse, Mou, Ferdinand, Noumen, Djeunga, Um Boock, Alphonse, Pluschke, Gerd
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Buruli ulcer (BU), a neglected tropical disease of the skin, caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, occurs most frequently in children in West Africa. Risk factors for BU include proximity to slow flowing water, poor wound care and not wearing protective clothing. Man-made alterations of the environment have been suggested to lead to increased BU incidence. M. ulcerans DNA has been detected in the environment, water bugs and recently also in mosquitoes. Despite these findings, the mode of transmission of BU remains poorly understood and both transmission by insects or direct inoculation from contaminated environment have been suggested. Here, we investigated the BU epidemiology in the Mapé basin of Cameroon where the damming of the Mapé River since 1988 is believed to have increased the incidence of BU. Through a house-by-house survey in spring 2010, which also examined the local population for leprosy and yaws, and continued surveillance thereafter, we identified, till June 2012, altogether 88 RT-PCR positive cases of BU. We found that the age adjusted cumulative incidence of BU was highest in young teenagers and in individuals above the age of 50 and that very young children (
ISSN:1935-2735
1935-2727
1935-2735
DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002252