Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: mycobacterium

  • The discovery of the Bairnsdale (or Buruli) ulcer and the source of the White Nile

    John HaymanParkville, Victoria, Australia Five of the six patients in whom Mycobacterium ulcerans infection was first identified and described lived in the Bairnsdale district of southeastern Australia.1 The mycobacterium was not initially named as such, but the progressive skin ulcer that it causes became known as the “Bairnsdale ulcer.” It was soon appreciated that this…

  • The scourge, the scientist, and the swindle

    Anne JacobsonOak Park, Illinois, United States “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live…