EurekAlert -- An international team of 17 researchers from four countries has for the first time isolated from the environment and fully characterized the organism that causes Buruli ulcer. The study, published March 26th in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, lends support to the idea that the organism, Mycobacterium ulcerans, is transmitted to humans from environmental aquatic niches, rather than from person to person.
