To treat yaws, one of two antibiotics, azithromycin or benzathine penicillin, can be used:
Azithromycin (single oral dose) 30 mg/kg (maximum 2 g) is the preferred treatment.
Benzathine penicillin (single intramuscular dose) at 0.6 million units (children under 10 years) and 1.2 million units (persons over 10 years) may be used for patients with suspected clinical treatment failure after azithromycin, or patients who cannot be treated with azithromycin.
Patients should be re-examined 4 weeks after antibiotic treatment. Complete clinical cure will be seen in more than 95% of cases. Any individual with suspected treatment failure requires macrolide resistance testing.
Prevention and control
There is no vaccine for yaws. Health education and oman email list improved personal hygiene are essential components to reduce transmission. Contacts of patients with yaws should receive empirical treatment.
The eradication approach consists of mass treatment (also called Total Community Treatment, TCT) in which oral azithromycin (30 mg/kg, maximum 2 g) is administered to the entire population (minimum coverage of 90%) in areas known to harbor yaws. Two or three rounds of mass treatment can interrupt transmission, but studies are ongoing to determine the optimal number of rounds.
Three criteria for the eradication of yaws are:
absence of new serologically confirmed indigenous cases for 3 consecutive years;
absence of any PCR-proven case; and
absence of evidence of transmission for 3 continuous years measured with serological s
