Students at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah have banded together to fight a little known disease - which in some cases - is more devastating now than Leprosy ever was.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates takes a look.
A benefit concert in Salt Lake raises money to support another trip by a group of Utah students and doctors to West Africa. The project is called HART, the Humanitarian Aid Relief Team. It's goal - to destroy an insidious villain, spreading its disfiguring arms throughout Ghana.
This child has what is called Buruli ulcer. It started on her wrist and has now spread to her knuckles.
PARKER FILLMORE, BYU CHAPTER, HART: "SAY IT JUST STARTS ON THE FOREARM. IT CAN RUPTURE AND SPREAD TO THE WRIST - INVOLVE THE BONES IN THE WRIST - AND SPREAD TO THE ELBOW - UNTIL YOU'VE GOT AN OVERBLOWN ULCER."
Once in bone, the joints seize up. Right now, the only cure is to surgically remove the ulcer while it's still small. Once it spreads...
JEFF BIGELOW, U OF U CHAPTER, HART: "SOME CASES LEAD TO AMPUTATION. A LOT OF TIMES, IT AFFECTS THE JOINTS AND IT CAN LEAD TO PERMANENT CONTRACTIONS - PERMANENT DISABILITIES."
Some evidence shows the disease is coming from a bacteria found in contaminated water. It doesn't appear to spread from person to person - unless someone who has a small cut on their skin comes in direct contact with the infected area.
The disfiguring disease originally was isolated to rural areas - but recently has spread to the fringes of big cities - including the capitol of Ghana.
BIGELOW: "IT'S KIND OF THOUGHT TO BE THIS DISEASE THAT'S ONLY IN SMALL VILLAGES, BUT THE AREA WE'RE WORKING IN NOW IS ONLY A HALF HOUR FROM ACCRA."
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "THE HART PROJECT HAS DEVELOPED A UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BYU AND THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. WHAT WAS ONCE A RIVALRY - IS NOW A PARTNERSHIP."
Competition on the football field does NOT happen here. The game is much bigger now and the teams are all ONE - together!
Medical aid, searching the villages, looking for early cases which can be cured, doctors training doctors - that's why these volunteer students have come here before and why they're going back this summer.
FILLMORE: "KNOWING YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE - EVEN IF IT IS JUST A DOZEN PEOPLE YOU'VE MANAGED TO SAVE ON THAT TRIP. YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE."
The trip costs 85-thousand dollars. Students alone have already raised 65-thousand. This concert brought in 10-thousand dollars to pay for the medical supplies. Ed Yeates, Eyewitness News.
