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Yaws - Symptom

Alternative Names

Frambesia tropica

Symptoms:

About 2 - 4 weeks after infection, the child develops a sore called a "mother yaw" where the bacteria entered the skin. The sore is a growth that looks like a raspberry. It is usually painless. These sores may last for months. More sores may appear shortly before or after the mother yaw heals.

Other symptoms include:

Bone pain/damage
Fever
Swelling of the bones and fingers

In the final stage, sores on the skin and bones can lead to severe disfigurement and disability. This occurs in up to 20% of people who do not get treatment.

Signs and tests:

A sample from a skin sore is examined under a special type of microscope (darkfield examination). There is no blood test for yaws. However, the blood tests for syphilis may be positive in yaws because the two conditions are closely related.

Reviewed last on: 8/1/2008
Neil K. Kaneshiro, MD, MHA, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

References

Hook III EW. Nonsyphilitic Treponematoses. In: Goldman L, Ausiello D, eds. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:chap 341.

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