A Sero-epidemiological Approach to Explore Transmission of Mycobacterium ulcerans.

ABSTRACT: The debilitating skin disease Buruli ulcer (BU) is caused by infection with Mycobacterium ulcerans. While various hypotheses on potential reservoirs and vectors of M. ulcerans exist, the mode of transmission has remained unclear. Epidemiological studies have indicated that children below the age of four are less exposed to the pathogen and at lower risk of developing BU than older children. In the present study we compared the age at which children begin to develop antibody responses against M. ulcerans with the age pattern of responses to other pathogens transmitted by various mechanisms. A total of 1,352 sera from individuals living in the BU endemic Offin river valley of Ghana were included in the study. While first serological responses to the mosquito transmitted malaria parasite Plas

SUBMITTER: Ampah KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4726553 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature