Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T01:43:57.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

David Barker, Buruli ulcer and the epidemiology of a neglected tropical disease

Part of: Sir David Barker Symposium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2015

D. I. W. Phillips
D. I. W. Phillips*
Affiliation:
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: D. Phillips, Medical Research Council, Southampton General Hospital, Tremona Road, Southampton SO17 1NN, UK. (Email [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 1969, David Barker, his wife and four children moved to Uganda to work at Makerere Medical School in the capital Kampala. During the 1960s, Makerere had become a research and teaching centre with an international reputation based on the work of Trowell, Burkitt, Hutt and many others who had pioneered studies explaining the disease patterns in the West Nile area on the basis of the local climate, nutrition and lifestyle. David Barker was funded by the Medical Research Council to carry out research on a poorly understood disease, Buruli ulcer, joining Scottish surgeon Wilson Carswell, who was later to achieve fame as the role model for Dr Garrigan in Giles Foden’s novel The Last King of Scotland.

Keywords

buruli ulcerneglected tropical diseasesepidemiology
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 6 , Issue 5: Themed Issue: David Barker commemorative meeting, September 2014; Prenatal Exposures and Health Outcomes , October 2015 , pp. 425 - 427
Check for updates
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Portaels, F, Silva, MT, Meyers, WM. Buruli ulcer. Clin Dermatol. 2009; 27, 291–305.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2. Chany, AC, Tresse, C, Casarotto, V, Blanchard, N. History, biology and chemistry of Mycobacterium ulcerans infections (Buruli ulcer disease). Nat Prod Rep. 2013; 30, 1527–1567.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3. Sizaire, V, Nackers, F, Comte, E, Portaels, F. Mycobacterium ulcerans infection: control, diagnosis, and treatment. Lancet Infect Dis. 2006; 6, 288–296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4. Barker, DJ. The distribution of Buruli disease in Uganda. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1972; 66, 867–874.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5. Barker, DJ, Clancey, JK, Morrow, RH, Rao, S. Transmission of Buruli disease. Br Med J. 1970; 4, 558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6. Revill, WD, Barker, DJ. Seasonal distribution of mycobacterial skin ulcers. Br J Prev Soc Med. 1972; 26, 23–27.Google ScholarPubMed
7. Barker, DJ, Carswell, JW. Mycobacterium ulcerans infection among tsetse control workers in Uganda. Int J Epidemiol. 1973; 2, 161–165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8. World Health Organisation. Neglected tropical diseases, 2015. Retrieved March 2015 from http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/en/.Google Scholar
9. Barker, DJP. Practical Epidemiology, 1978. English Language Book Society, Churchill Livingstone, London.Google Scholar
10. Phillips, DI, Lusty, TD, Osmond, C, Church, D. Iodine supplementation: comparison of oral or intramuscular iodized oil with oral potassium iodide. A controlled trial in Zaire. Int J Epidemiol. 1988; 17, 142–147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11. Phillips, DIW, Mamo, Y, Alemu, S, et al. Non-communicable disease in Sub-Saharan Africa’s rural poor – the need for an appropriate approach. Lancet. 2015; (submitted).Google Scholar
12. Steer, AC, Carapetis, JR, Nolan, TM, Shann, F. Systematic review of rheumatic heart disease prevalence in children in developing countries: the role of environmental factors. J Paediatr Child Health. 2002; 38, 229–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13. Phillips, DIW, Osmond, C. Is susceptibility to chronic rheumatic heart disease determined in early infancy? An analysis of mortality in Britain during the 20th century. Glob Cardiol Sci Pract. 2014; 4, 464–472.Google Scholar
14. Alemu, S, Dessie, A, Seid, E, et al. Insulin-requiring diabetes in rural Ethiopia: should we reopen the case for malnutrition-related diabetes? Diabetologia. 2009; 52, 1842–1845.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15. Fekadu, S, Yigzaw, M, Alemu, S, et al. Insulin-requiring diabetes in Ethiopia: associations with poverty, early undernutrition and anthropometric disproportion. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2010; 64, 1192–1198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed