Epidemiologic and Genomic Reidentification of Yaws, Liberia

Emerg Infect Dis. 2021 Apr;27(4):1123-1132. doi: 10.3201/eid2704.204442.ABSTRACTWe confirmed endemicity and autochthonous transmission of yaws in Liberia after a population-based, community-led burden estimation (56,825 participants). Serologically confirmed yaws was rare and focal at population level (24 cases; 2.6 [95% CI 1.4-3.9] cases/10,000 population) with similar clinical epidemiology to other endemic countries in West Africa. Unsupervised classification of spatially referenced case finding data indicated that yaws was more likely to occur in hard-to-reach communities; healthcare-seeking was low among communities, and clinical awareness of yaws was low among healthcare workers. We recovered whole bacterial genomes from 12 cases and describe a monophyletic clade of Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue, phylogenetically distinct from known TPE lineages, including those affecting neighboring nonhuman primate populations (Taï Forest, Côte d'Ivoire). Yaws is endemic in Liberia but exhibits low focal population prevalence with evidence of a historical genetic bottleneck and subsequent local expansion. Reporting gaps appear attributable to challenging epidemiology and low disease awareness.PMID:33754988 | DOI:10.3201/eid2704.204442

Source: Emerging Infectious Diseases - March 23, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Joseph W S Timothy Mathew A Beale Emerson Rogers Zeela Zaizay Katherine E Halliday Tarnue Mulbah Romeo K Giddings Stephen L Walker Nicholas R Thomson Karsor K Kollie Rachel L Pullan Michael Marks Source Type: research