GENEVA, Switzerland, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The U.N. health agency says it is renewing efforts to eradicate yaws, a nearly forgotten disease that eats away at skin, cartilage and bones.
More than 500,000 people, most of them children, are afflicted by yaws, the U.N. World Health Organization said Thursday. The disease affects poor and rural communities in Asia, South America and Africa.
Experts on the disease and officials from various health ministries are holding informal consultations to develop a new global strategy to combat yaws, the agency said.
"The persistence of yaws in the 21st century is unacceptable," said Dr. Lorenzo Savioli, WHO director of neglected tropical diseases. "There is a cost-effective approach to treating this disease."
Yaws is treated by a dose of penicillin that costs as little as 32 cents, according to WHO.
The disease is caused by spiral bacteria which are transmitted person to person, the agency said. It creates bumps on the skin that burst, ulcerate and spread over the body. It can result in gross deformation.
WHO said yaws can be eliminated because humans are the only reservoir of infection.
In 1950 more than 50 million people worldwide were afflicted by the disease.
WHO and The U.N. Children's Fund launched a 12-year campaign against yaws in 1952 and succeeded in reducing global levels of the disease by more than 95 percent, nearly eradicating it.
