Is yaws the same as syphilis?
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Is yaws the same as syphilis?
Syphilis is usually transmitted sexually and now has a global distribution. Yaws is characteristically an infection acquired during childhood through skin contact in remote regions of Africa, South Asia, and the Western Pacific islands. A close relative of the syphilis and yaws treponemes is T.
What is the causative organism of yaws?
Yaws is the most common of these three infections. The causative organism, Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue, is closely related genetically to T. pallidum subspecies pallidum, which causes syphilis, bejel and pinta.
What is the difference between syphilis and endemic syphilis?
T pallidum causes venereal syphilis. T carateum and T pertenue cause pinta and yaws, respectively. Endemic syphilis is caused by T pallidum subsp endemicum. Endemic syphilis is transmitted through direct or indirect skin-to-skin or mouth-to-mouth contact with the infected lesion.
What does endemic syphilis look like?
Bejel usually begins in childhood as a small patch on the mucosa, often on the interior of the mouth, followed by the appearance of raised, eroding lesions on the limbs and trunk. Periostitis (inflammation) of the leg bones is commonly seen, and gummas of the nose and soft palate develop in later stages.
What is another name for yaws?
| Yaws | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Frambesia tropica, thymosis, polypapilloma tropicum, non-venereal endemic syphilis, parangi and paru (Malay), bouba (Spanish), frambösie, pian (French), frambesia (German), bakataw (Maguindanaoan) |
| Nodules on the elbow resulting from a Treponema pallidum pertenue bacterial infection |
Who cured yaws?
Dr Sankaran Govindan and his compounder Padmanabhan Pillai travelled across Kadakkal, in what is now Kollam district in Kerala, to cure the tropical bacterial infection, yaws. Two men were on a mission in a bullockcart. Covering the hilly terrain was not easy in the mid-1930s when roads were few.
Where did syphilis come from?
The first well-recorded European outbreak of what is now known as syphilis occurred in 1495 among French troops besieging Naples, Italy. It may have been transmitted to the French via Spanish mercenaries serving King Charles of France in that siege. From this centre, the disease swept across Europe.
Can you get syphilis from poor hygiene?
Syphilis is usually transmitted by sexual contact or from mother to infant, although endemic syphilis is transmitted by non-sexual contact in communities living under poor hygiene conditions. T. pallidum can also be transmitted by blood transfusion.
