Drug development could provide non-invasive medical treatment of the disease. The only currently available treatment of Buruli Ulcer is surgery, which is unaffordable for patients in the most affected countries. Furthermore, adequate surgical facilities are often not available in endemic areas. If left untreated, it can lead to severe complications, loss of organs such as eyes and breasts, amputations and other permanent disabilities. Information on the disease is scarce, little is known about the mode of transmission to human beings, and patients come to health services in the late stages of the disease.
Most patients live in rural areas near rivers or wetlands.
Incidence of Buruli Ulcer is rapidly growing in West Africa. The economic cost of the disease has not yet been quantified but it surely will have severe social and economic consequences for affected countries in West Africa, if it is not addressed with the urgency it deserves. In C te d'Ivoire, approximately 10,000 cases have been recorded since 1978 and up to 16 percent of the population in some villages are affected. However, cases were described as early as 1897. Cases have been reported in Angola, Australia, Benin, Bolivia, Cameroon, Congo, C te d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, French Guyana, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Togo and Uganda.