Yaws

While diagnostic tests are available to test for the bacterium, they aren't always used in areas with yaws. Instead, the disease is typically diagnosed by a physical exam.

Physical Exam

In areas where yaws is common, healthcare providers will often look for the physical signs and symptoms of the disease in order to make a diagnosis. Because the majority (75 percent) of cases are in kids under 15 years old, the healthcare provider might also take someone's age into consideration. The specific signs they look for include:

Painless sores with scabs

Warts or wart-like growths

Thickening of the skin on the hands or bottom of the feet (called palmar/plantar hyperkeratosis)

Diagnostic Tests

Multiple tests can be done in the lab or in the field to help diagnose yaws. These are:

Lab tests: Lab tests like Treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TPPA) are frequently used to spot infections with Treponema bacteria, with the drawback that these tests can't distinguish between yaws and syphilis. As a result, healthcare providers must rely on the physical exam to paint a clearer picture of which condition a positive test result is indicating.

Rapid tests: Rapid point-of-care tests can be used in communities to test for the bacteria in areas where health services might be limited, though they can't always determine whether the infection is old or current.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR): This method can definitely confirm a yaws diagnosis by detecting the bacteria in sores or other skin lesions. This confirmation is particularly important during elimination programs where health officials are using the results to test whether the disease is still in a given community.

Treatment of yaws is simple and highly effective. Penicillin G benzathine given IM (intramuscularly) can cure the disease in the primary, secondary, and usually in the latent phase.

Penicillin V can be given orally for about seven to 10 days, but this route is less reliable than direct injection. Anyone allergic to penicillin can be treated with another antibiotic, usually erythromycin, doxycycline, or tetracycline.

Azithromycin (in a single oral dose of 30 mg/kg or the maximum 2 g) is the choice that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends because of the ease of administration.

Tertiary yaws, which occurs in about 10% of untreated patients five to 10 years after initially getting the disease, is not contagious. The tertiary yaws patient is treated for the symptoms of the chronic conditions (altered or destroyed areas in bones, joints, cartilage, and soft tissues) that develop as complications of the infection.

There is no vaccine for yaws.