What Is Yaws

Yaws is a little known tropical disease, which is still seen in the tropical humid areas of Central and South America, Asia and Africa. These countries continue to report cases of this disease found in sufferers living in poverty-stricken rural communities and villages.

Symptoms of Yaws start with a lesion or papule on the skin where bacteria enter the body. They typically appear between two to four weeks after initial infection. This initial lesion is pretty lethal – even after treatment, the infected parts can still be struck with bacteria for up to six months. Therefore, any lesion or papule areas should be quickly covered and treated to prevent the spread of the disease.

The bacteria that causes Yaws is called treponema pertenue. It is a bacteria strain that is related to treponema palllidum, the same bacteria that causes the veneral form syphilis. Up to 80% of the people afflicted with Yaws are children below 15 years of age. Both males and females can be equally affected.

Yaws is often spread through direct contact with an infected person’s skin with open lesions. It can also be contracted via contaminated food and water. Overcrowding and poor sanitation are factors that often aggravate the spread of the disease.

If no treatment is sought in time, Yaws can develop into skin lesions all over the body in addition to bone lesions and bone pain. The symptoms can be disfiguring. Early stages of the disease with the lesions are infectious while the late stages are not. Benzathine penicillin is the most successful antibiotic for treating Yaws and is most effective as an injection. Those allergic to penicillin could be administered doxycycline, tetracycline or even erythromycin.

Unfortunately, depsite it being very preventable and treatable, Yaws has been sadly neglected in comparision to other prevalent diseases like malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever. No vaccination has also been developed for this disease. Perhaps the number of incidences do not justify the costs of developing one by drug companies. Thankfully, antibiotics can be used as treatment if detected early enough. The best bet for prevention is health education and to aid in proper sanitation.