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. (attached word document)

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