In a recent study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases , researchers used five years of notification data to verify the hypothesis that mosquitoes may serve as transmission vectors of Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcers. Previous research has suggested mosquitoes as the disease's vectors, but short-term datasets and a lack of accounting for the incubation period have made these findings less conclusive. The present study assessed seasonality in Alphavirus infections and Buruli ulcer occurrences in Victoria, Australia, while adjusting for the latter's incubation period.
Although the results strongly suggest that native possums act as the environmental reservoir for the M. ulcerans, with mosquitoes as their vectors across both human and possum hosts, the researchers cautioned that further studies are required to confirm this transmission pathway definitively. Dispatch: Mosquitoes as Vectors of Mycobacterium ulcerans Based on Analysis of Notifications of Alphavirus Infection and Buruli Ulcer, Victoria, Australia .
Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock Background Buruli ulcers are chronic, necrotizing infections caused by the bacterium M. ulcerans, a close relative of leprosy and tuberculosis bacteria . It is commonly found in tropical areas such as Australia, West Africa, and Japan and are characterized by painless ulcers on the skin of the arms and legs.
If left untreated, the disease can affect soft tissue and even bone, leading to.