Endemic syphilis and yaws

Abstract

Endemic syphilis and similar conditions are compared in this paper with yaws. Both are non-venereal and endemic, and they have very similar epidemiological characteristics. There is also considerable similarity in the clinical manifestations at the various stages of yaws and endemic syphilis, the differences that do appear being mainly due to different environmental and living conditions. No antigenic or immunogenic differences between syphilis and yaws have yet been demonstrated, and the sensitivity of both to penicillin is the same. Control measures for both diseases may be based on similar principles.The author considers the treponematoses to be closely related infections, and stresses the "unitarian" view put forward by various writers.