Early yaws, imported in The Netherlands.

Abstract

Early yaws in a 9 year old girl from Ghana, diagnosed as imported disease in The Netherlands is reported. She had lived in The Netherlands for six months. Tropical non-venereal treponematoses are rarely seen in Europe, and only a few case reports have been published. Migration and travelling may confront the medical profession with cases of tropical diseases such as yaws. Positive serological reactions in non-venereal tropical or venereal treponematoses cannot be distinguished at present.

Complete genome sequences of two strains of Treponema pallidum subsp. pertenue from Ghana, Africa: Identical genome sequences in samples isolated more than 7 years apart

“…In 1980, TPE strain CDC 2575 was isolated in Akorabo, Ghana, from a 6-year-old female patient from a papillomatous lesion and inoculated into hamsters [ 8 ], and later propagated in New Zealand White rabbits [ 9 ]. TPE strain Ghana-051 was isolated in 1988 from a papillomatous lesion of 9-year-old girl who was infected at an unspecified location in Ghana six months prior to admission to Sophia Children's Hospital in Rotterdam, The Netherlands [ 10 ]. An extract from a biopsy of this patient in secondary yaws stage was inoculated into New Zealand White rabbits in the Netherlands [ 10 ].…”

Whole genome sequence of the Treponema pallidum subsp. endemicum strain Iraq B: A subpopulation of bejel treponemes contains full-length tprF and tprG genes similar to those present in T. p. subsp. pertenue strains

“…However, exceptions to these rules occur. Several imported cases of yaws and bejel in children and adults in Europe and North America have been described [7][8][9][10]. In addition, recent studies by Noda et al [11] and Kawahata et al [12] have identified TEN in clinical samples from Cuban and Japanese patients, respectively, who had previously been diagnosed with syphilis.…”

The sequence of the acidic repeat protein (arp) gene differentiates venereal from nonvenerealTreponema pallidumsubspecies, and the gene has evolved under strong positive selection in the subspecies that causes syphilis

“…For example, yaws may mimic venereal syphilis (Wilson, 1973; Engelkens et al , 1990), or the symptoms of a previous yaws infection may mask those of a new syphilis infection (Wilson & Mauger, 1973). In addition, population data are not always readily available, as for patients who have recently immigrated (Engelkens et al , 1989), or two infections may be present in the same population (Lagarde et al , 2003). As yaws eradication efforts near their goal (Lahariya & Pradhan, 2007) and case diagnosis becomes more difficult, a molecular means of determining whether the infection is venereal or nonvenereal becomes essential.…”