A flesh-rotting bacteria called buruli that lurks in soil is attacking man as never before, especially in Africa. Death often comes from multiple infections, exhaustion, and blood poisoning. "Now that we are getting rid of leprosy, we have a new leprosy bug for the third millennium," says Ivory Coast's World Health Organisation representative, Dr. Emmanuel Eben-Moussi. Dr. Bouzid Samir Anor, an epidemiologist researching Buruli at Ivory Coast's branch of the Paris-based Pasteur Institute, said: "Now it is in an epidemic phase. In four years, the number of affected people doubled." There is no known cure for buruli, which is similar to tuberculosis.