Growth and characterization of lead salt microdisk lasers with near-room-temperature continuous-wave (cw) emission at mid-infrared wavelengths around 4.3 mu m is reported. The laser structures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on BaF(2) substrates and consist of a PbSe single quantum well embedded in Pb(0.94)Sr(0.06)Se barrier layers. Under optical excitation, cw lasing is obtained up to temperatures of 275 K, i.e., 2 degrees C. With increasing pump power, the narrow laser line shifts to shorter wavelengths, from which an internal temperature of about 20 degrees C is estimated. We also find a good agreement between the observed laser lines and the calculated optical microdisk resonator modes. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.