Yaws Nearly Wiped Out In Africa

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31145, 23 August 1966, Page 11

Yaws Nearly Wiped Out In Africa

<»V Z P A Reuter) NEW YORK. The crippling disease of yaws, which has affected millions of African children, is near t r > being wiped out on the continent, according to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (U.N.1.C.E.F.).

Mass campaigns have been vaged against the disease in 16 countries and by the end of 1965. nearly 23 million cases of yaws had been found and treated with penicillin. The disappearance of yaws from the African continent is now in sight. In some countries, yaws has become so rare that young doctors must rely on charts and slides to study the disease. Yaws is a tropical disease affecting mainly children and causing painful, and often disfiguring sores. During 15 years of the fund's operations in Africa progress has also been made in combatting other diseases, including leprosy and tuberculosis. But hopes for the early elimination of malaria have proved premature. Extensive spraying with DDT insecticide reduced the incidence of the disease in some areas only temporarily. Basic health services were too weak to follow up and

consolidate the gains, and within a few years, mosquitoes became resistant to the insecticide. Now, the emphasis has shifted to “pre-eradica-tion” measures, including improvements in the public health infra-structure.