Buruli ulcer: cured by 8 weeks of oral antibiotics?

In 1998, at a special WHO conference on Buruli ulcer held in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire, delegates and heads of state of affected countries recognised Buruli ulcer as a damaging disease about which little was known. Importantly, there seemed to be no reliable chemotherapy, leaving wide excisional surgery and grafting as the only effective treatment.1 Buruli ulcer is caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans—an environmental pathogen with a unique virulence determinant—a potent locally acting toxin. Clinically, Buruli ulcer is a destructive infection of the skin and soft tissue, which can result in severe tissue destruction followed by scarring and contracture.