A neglected disease with a nearly forgotten name is making a comeback following a global control programme that almost eradicated it more than 40 years ago.
Yaws (guinea-kopper), a disease which eats away at the skin, cartilage (brusk) and bones of its victims (mostly children), is re-emerging in poor, rural and marginalized populations of Africa, Asia and South America, according to The World Health Organisation, WHO.
Today, more than 500.000 are afflicted by yaws, which is caused by a spiral bacteria that penetrates through a cut in the skin resulting in bumps (buler) that burst, ulcerate (danner sår) and spread over the body.
This week (24-26 January), world experts including officials from the health ministries of selected endemic countries – Indonesia, Ghana and the Republic of Congo – held an informal consultation to develop a new global strategy for combating this disease, the second attempt of its kind.
Experts believe that yaws can be eliminated and eventually eradicated because humans are the only reservoir of infection.
In the 1950s, more than 50 million people worldwide were afflicted by the disease until WHO, in partnership with UNICEF, established a massive global control programme to eliminate it.
The Global Yaws Control Programme, fully operational between 1952 and 1964, succeeded in treating 300 million people in 50 countries – reducing global levels of the disease by more than 95% and virtually eradicating yaws.
However, after the programmes enormous success, sustained surveillance (overvågning) of yaws diminished, which has now given way to its resurgence in the 21st century.
Yaws is transmitted from person to person via skin contact or through breaks in the skin caused by injuries or bites which allow the spiral bacteria to penetrate. It is a debilitating disease whose effects in its young victims (mostly children under 15 years of age) can often cause gross deformation.
Lesions develop that eat bone, cartilage, skin and soft tissue, leaving victims with gaping holes where their lips or noses should be.
