VOA慢速英语 新型麻风病"布鲁里溃疡"

　　It was just discussed during an international health conference held in Benin. Benin, Ghana and Ivory Coast have thousands of current cases of Buruli ulcer disease. Health officials believe other countries in West Africa have unreported cases.

　　Scientists are not sure how Buruli ulcer disease spreads or even how it develops in nature. They suspect it may involve mosquitoes or other organisms that live in water.

　　A British doctor reported the first cases of what was probably Buruli ulcer in eighteen ninety-seven in Uganda. Sir Albert Cook of the Church Missionary Society described the condition in patients at his Mengo Hospital in Kampala.

　　In nineteen forty-eight, Peter MacCallum and other scientists in Australia reported six cases near Melbourne. They also identified the bacterium that causes Buruli ulcer. The first complete genetic map was published in two thousand seven. That genome may lead to better treatment and control of the disease.

　　Public health officials hope that a treatment can be developed that does not require injections. If people could take the medicine by mouth, they would not need to travel to health clinics.

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