Mycobacterium ulcerans in Liberia: a clinicopathologic study of 6 patients with Buruli ulcer

Two patients with Buruli ulcer (infection by Mycobacterium ulcerans) in the Foya region of Liberia have recently been reported. We describe three more patients which together with the two original patients establish the Mayor River basin as an endemic area of Buruli ulcer. We also describe a patient from the St. Paul River basin. This disease, unrecognized in Liberia before 1978, now seems to be widespread in Liberia and has been reported in neighboring Sierra Leone and observed in Ivory Coast as well. The possibility of Buruli ulcer appearing in other regions of West Africa should be anticipated. Diagnosis involves finding acid-fast bacilli in smears of the exudate from typical lesions or by finding in biopsy specimens the characteristic zone of coagulation necrosis containing acid-fast bacilli. The bacillus, Mycobacterium ulcerans, stains readily with the Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) and Fite-Faraco (FF) procedures. Treatment is excision when the lesion is small and by debridement and grafting, combined with heat and chemotherapeutic agents when the lesion is large.