One of the main candidates to be the second eradicated human disease is yaws , which competes in this sense with others such as malaria or polio. It is an endemic disease in tropical regions, which once affected between 50 and 150 million people.
What is pian? What are your causes?
Yaws is the disease caused by infection with the bacterium Treponema pallidum pertenue , belonging to the phylum of spirochetes. It is closely related to others such as bejel, pinta, and syphilis.
It affects the skin, bones and joints , and is spread by direct contact or by the fluids of infected people.
Its mortality is relatively low, but if it is not treated it tends to become chronic and cause disfigurement.
What are your symptoms?
Yaws is characterized by the initial appearance on the skin of one or more papilloma-like lesions that ulcerate over time. Once these heal on their own, the disease goes into a short latency period only to return in a secondary form later on.
This second manifestation takes the form of raised yellowish lesions on different parts of the body and pain and inflammation of the long bones.
How is it treated?
As it is a bacterial infection, the treatment of yaws consists of the administration of antibiotics.
Specifically, azithromycin (a single oral dose) and benzathine penicillin (a single intramuscular dose) are used. In 95% of cases, this approach achieves complete healing within about four weeks.
The remaining 5% should be tested for antibiotic resistance to macrolides and continued treatment with benzathine penicillin.
