How to find a forgotten disease like yaws: Lessons from the Philippine experience.

Abstract

Yaws is a highly infectious, chronic, and disabling neglected tropical disease of the skin and bones that is caused by Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue and mainly affects children in tropical countries. A yaws eradication campaign from the 1950s to the early 1960s was successful in reducing cases by 95% worldwide, but a resurgence was noted in the 1970s. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) targeted eradication of yaws through a mass administration of one-dose azithromycin. Nevertheless, in 2021, a total of 123,866 cases were reported from 13 countries, and 1,102 cases from nine countries were confirmed. Confirmed cases were largely from the Western Pacific region, although most cases from this region were not laboratory confirmed [1].