Rural volunteers and Canadian and Italian nuns run basic centres similar to leper colonies pioneered by the missionary Albert Schweitzer in Africa in the early 1900s, but are overwhelmed with cases as funds dry up. Some sufferers are sent to traditional leper colonies. He said the antibiotic Rifampicine used in leprosy treatment killed the bacteria in test tubes. Ivory Coast's first known Buruli victim caught it playing by a lake in 1978. She survived after 16 months of surgery in her native France.
African children are particularly vulnerable, making up three-quarters of cases.
She was taken to hospital three months ago. Her symptoms are bulbous swellings around the eyes. There is a lot of water near and other people in my village have got it as well. Professor Dosso, surrounded by researchers in protection suits colour- coded for each of seven laboratories trying to isolate different parts of the bug, says a few people do get better spontaneously. For most, the disease just spreads.