Nutritional interventions at a community level may be the best way forward to both prevent and treat the “flesh-eating” skin infection Buruli ulcer in the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), according to a new study from the University of Surrey.
In collaboration with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a series of hospitals in Ghana, the Surrey researchers looked to analyse the diets and blood samples of at-risk Ghanaian communities to investigate potential links between nutrition and Buruli ulcer.
The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust and Nestle Foundation, studied people with the infection and community members without, who all lived in the Ashanti region of Ghana, and found that the diets of the whole study group frequently fell short of recommended vitamin…