Veitch M G, Johnson P D, Flood P E, Leslie D E, Street A C, Hayman J A
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra.
Epidemiol Infect. 1997 Dec;119(3):313-8. doi: 10.1017/s0950268897008273.
Mycobacterium ulcerans, the organism which causes Buruli or Bairnsdale ulcer, has never been isolated in culture from an environmental sample. Most foci of infection are in tropical regions. The authors describe the first 29 cases of M. ulcerans infection from a new focus on an island in temperate southern Australia, 1992-5. Cases were mostly elderly, had predominantly distal limb lesions and were clustered in a small region in the eastern half of the main town on the island. The authors suspected that an irrigation system which lay in the midst of the cluster was a source of infection. Limitation of irrigation was associated with a dramatic reduction in the number of new cases. These findings support the hypothesis that M. ulcerans has an aquatic reservoir and that persons may be infected directly or indirectly by mycobacteria disseminated locally by spray irrigation.
溃疡分枝杆菌是导致布鲁里溃疡或拜恩斯代尔溃疡的病原体，从未从环境样本中培养分离出来过。大多数感染病灶位于热带地区。作者描述了1992年至1995年在澳大利亚南部温带一个岛屿上新发现的首批29例溃疡分枝杆菌感染病例。病例大多为老年人，主要是肢体远端出现病变，且集中在该岛主要城镇东半部的一个小区域。作者怀疑位于病例集中区域中间的一个灌溉系统是感染源。限制灌溉与新病例数量的大幅减少有关。这些发现支持了这样一种假说，即溃疡分枝杆菌存在于水生环境中，人们可能通过喷灌局部传播的分枝杆菌直接或间接受到感染。
