Mycobacterium ulcerans

Mycobacterium ulcerans (M. ulcerans) is a slow-growing mycobacterium that classically infects the skin and subcutaneous tissues, giving rise to indolent nonulcerated (nodules, plaques) and ulcerated lesions. After tuberculosis and leprosy, Buruli ulcer is the third most common mycobacteriosis of humans. M. ulcerans grows optimally on routine mycobacteriologic media at 33 °C and elaborates a necrotizing immunosuppressive cytotoxin (mycolactone). The bacteria is considered microaerophilic. Large ulcers almost certainly caused by M. ulcerans were first observed by Cook in Uganda in 1897; however, the etiologic agent was not isolated and characterized until 1948 in Australia by MacCallum and associates.