Jul 4, 2020 06:54 PM
(This post was last modified: Jul 4, 2020 08:35 PM by C C.)
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...ng/613762/
EXCERPTS: . . . Since Buruli’s formal description in the mid-20th century, medicine has paid relatively little attention to a condition that, however cruel, primarily afflicts Africa’s poorest residents. Untreated, the pathogen slowly worms its way under the flesh before breaking through the surface, maiming and disfiguring its victims. Their necrotic limbs reek of rot. Although they rarely die of the disease, they are sometimes ostracized in their villages, left jobless and destitute.
Australia has had occasional Buruli cases dating back to the 1930s, but health authorities noticed an uptick in 2017, when more than 100 people contracted the disease. The following year, 340 Australians were diagnosed with Buruli, and one of them was a 13-year-old girl named Ella Crofts. After three major operations on her knee, she posted a petition demanding that the government fight the “tropical third-world disease that’s rampant” on the Mornington Peninsula.
[...] In a normal year, nearly 2 million visitors pack the shores of the Mornington Peninsula during the four months of spring and summer. It’s during this period, scientists say, that most Buruli infections in Australia are contracted. The infections take anywhere from four weeks to eight months to reveal themselves, meaning that cases peak during the Australian winter.
[...] These bacteria were producing specialized chemicals, known as mycolic acids, which make them hard to kill and keep them from drying out in an environment. The bacteria that can do this are known as mycobacteria -- the culprits behind tuberculosis and leprosy. ... researchers ... tried to grow colonies of the bacteria on glass petri dishes inside incubators kept at the temperature of the human body. When their first attempts failed ... In one set of Petri dishes, however, the bacteria did grow for some odd reason. The scientists eventually discovered that the incubator’s heater wasn’t working properly. It all suddenly made sense: These bacteria, christened Mycobacterium ulcerans, grew best at lower temperatures—just over 91 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of our skin. Buruli is so sensitive to temperature that it can be killed by wrapping heating pads around a victim for several weeks... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: . . . Since Buruli’s formal description in the mid-20th century, medicine has paid relatively little attention to a condition that, however cruel, primarily afflicts Africa’s poorest residents. Untreated, the pathogen slowly worms its way under the flesh before breaking through the surface, maiming and disfiguring its victims. Their necrotic limbs reek of rot. Although they rarely die of the disease, they are sometimes ostracized in their villages, left jobless and destitute.
Australia has had occasional Buruli cases dating back to the 1930s, but health authorities noticed an uptick in 2017, when more than 100 people contracted the disease. The following year, 340 Australians were diagnosed with Buruli, and one of them was a 13-year-old girl named Ella Crofts. After three major operations on her knee, she posted a petition demanding that the government fight the “tropical third-world disease that’s rampant” on the Mornington Peninsula.
[...] In a normal year, nearly 2 million visitors pack the shores of the Mornington Peninsula during the four months of spring and summer. It’s during this period, scientists say, that most Buruli infections in Australia are contracted. The infections take anywhere from four weeks to eight months to reveal themselves, meaning that cases peak during the Australian winter.
[...] These bacteria were producing specialized chemicals, known as mycolic acids, which make them hard to kill and keep them from drying out in an environment. The bacteria that can do this are known as mycobacteria -- the culprits behind tuberculosis and leprosy. ... researchers ... tried to grow colonies of the bacteria on glass petri dishes inside incubators kept at the temperature of the human body. When their first attempts failed ... In one set of Petri dishes, however, the bacteria did grow for some odd reason. The scientists eventually discovered that the incubator’s heater wasn’t working properly. It all suddenly made sense: These bacteria, christened Mycobacterium ulcerans, grew best at lower temperatures—just over 91 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of our skin. Buruli is so sensitive to temperature that it can be killed by wrapping heating pads around a victim for several weeks... (MORE - details)