Mycobacterium ulcerans infection; is the "Bairnsdale ulcer" also a Ceylonese disease?
Mycobacterium ulcerans infection produces progressive skin ulceration in man and other mammalia. The disease was first described in 1984 in patients from the Bairnsdale district in Australia, but was known in Africa well before this time. It has since been reported from many, mostly tropical countries in Africa, central and south America, and south-east Asia. The infection characteristically occurs in closely defined areas which are related to river or lacustrian systems draining tropical or warm temperate rain forest. Like the flora to which it relates, the mycobacterium shows a Gondwanian distribution which is evidence of its great antiquity. There is evidence that cases of the infection have occurred on the Indian subcontinent. Infection if it does occur would support the theory that the mycobacterial infection is related to tropical or warm temperate rain forest plant species with a Gondwanian distribution.
Seevanayagam
S
S
Department of Pathology, Repatriation Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia.
Hayman
J
J
D006801:Humans; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous; D012883:Skin Ulcer / Q000382:microbiology*; D013188:Sri Lanka