New Treatment Schemes for Yaws: The Path Toward Eradication

Yaws—an infectious disease caused by Treponema pallidum subsp. pertenue—is a paradigmatic example of the neglected tropical disease and is reemerging as a public health concern in many countries, causing suffering particularly in children aged <15 years of age in poor rural communities. However, its global eradication, a goal since 1950, may now be closer than ever as a result of the recent expansion and simplification of treatment options to include oral azithromycin. Indeed, the results of a trial published last January [1] allow certain optimism about the treatment and eradication of this ancient disease because a simple single-dose oral treatment targeting whole populations could be sufficient to adequately cure the infection in its early stages and interrupt transmission to others. A new eradication policy around the azithromycin pillar was sketched at a World Health Organization (WHO) consultation meeting held in Morges, Switzerland, in March 2012. It was envisaged that a last global mass campaign in the remaining endemic countries should permit worldwide eradication by 2020 in accordance with the WHO Neglected Tropical Diseases Roadmap [2]