Leprosy
Mailing List, January 11th, 2009
Ref.: New mycobacterium
species?
(see attachment)
From: de
Koning P.,
Würzburg
,
Germany
Dear
colleagues,
Recently
there has been a press release in the German media describing “a new mycobacterium species
causing diffuse lepromatous leprosy”. I refer to a link
describing the findings recently published in the Am J Clin Pathol.
2008 Dec;130(6):856-64:
http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/newsroom/display.cfm?id=CF698F6E-FDCC-4589-84F2FAE5EE4278F8&method=displayFull&pn=00c8a30f-c468-11d4-80fb00508b603a14
The scientist
claims finding a new species which may account for some of the
clinical and geographic variability of leprosy and which may have
implications for the research and diagnosis of leprosy. Is this really a new species,
or simply one that has existed all along but can only now be found due
to more sophisticated DNA and bio-molecular techniques? Although I am not familiar with
the details, to me it appears that the patient who died was not
diagnosed in time and therefore not given anti-leprosy drugs on time
and may have died due to septicaemia secondary to extensive ulceration
whilst undergoing Lucio’s phenomenon, which is indeed geographically
limited to South America.
Dr.
Pieter de Koning, MD, MPH
Medical
Advisor
Deutsche
Lepra- und Tuberkulosehilfe e.V (DAHW)
Mariannhillstraße
1c, 97074 Würzburg
Telefon:
++49 (0)931 7948-113, Fax: -160
E-mail:
pieter.de-koning at dahw.de
