Related Subjects:
|Treponema
|Bejel (Endemic syphilis)
|Pinta
|Yaws (Frambesia)
|Syphilis
🌍 Yaws is a chronic, tropical, non-venereal spirochetal infection spread by close body contact, mainly affecting children in resource-poor settings.
It is caused by Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue, and, if untreated, leads to severe disfigurement of skin, bone, and cartilage.
🧬 About
- Chronic, disfiguring, and debilitating childhood infection.
- Caused by Treponema pertenue, closely related to the syphilis spirochete.
- Endemic in parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific.
⚡ Aetiology
- Organism: Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue.
- Transmission: Direct skin-to-skin contact, facilitated by poverty and poor hygiene.
- Pathology: Granulomatous disease affecting skin, bone, and cartilage.
🩺 Clinical Features
- Incubation: 9–90 days (average ~21 days).
- Primary Lesion: Granulomatous papule/ulcer (“mother yaw”), usually on leg or buttock.
- Secondary Stage: Multiple papillomatous or ulcerating lesions, teeming with organisms.
- Bone Involvement: Hypertrophic periosteal lesions, osteitis, dactylitis (swollen fingers/toes).
- Late Disease: Gummas, destructive lesions resembling tertiary syphilis.
🔬 Investigations
- Microscopy: Dark-field or silver stain detection of spirochetes.
- Serology: TPPA (Treponema pallidum particle agglutination) & RPR positive.
- PCR: Confirms organism where available.
- Lesions (“raspberry-like” papillomas) often clinically diagnostic in endemic regions.
💊 Management
- First-line: Azithromycin (single oral dose) 30 mg/kg (max 2 g).
- Alternative: Benzathine penicillin (IM)
- 0.6 million units if <10 years old.
- 1.2 million units if ≥10 years old.
- WHO recommends mass treatment campaigns in endemic areas to achieve eradication.
📚 References
