Yaws

35 positive with yaws

These figures indicate that the highly contagious and infectious skin disease is present in other villages in the area, therefore requiring urgent attention before it spreads.

The remote Upati Village hardly ever has medical teams visit them let alone a trained doctor and laboratory scientist.

Villagers turned up in numbers as word spread quickly.

Mothers and their children, men and even the elderly braved the wet weather to get tested for yaws.

From the 117 blood tests conducted, 35 were found positive.

Medical team responds to yaws concerns

The team was on Sturt Island on Monday morning to conduct tests.

The decision to conduct a medical outreach came about after Community Health Workers in Sturt, Upati and Emerti Islands noticed locals reporting to the aid posts with skin conditions.

Community Health Worker at the Sturt aid post, Kawani Bulia, said he treats up to 60 suspected cases per day.

Bulia said some of his patients have reported that they contracted the skin condition after getting in contact with water.

Skin infections raise alarm

Emerti Village in the Upper Bamu LLG of Daru, Western Province, is the village where alarms about the Yaws disease were raised early last month.

According to the World Health Organisation, Yaws is a chronic infection that affects mainly the skin, bone and cartilage.

The disease occurs mainly in poor communities in warm, humid, tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

At the Emerti Station Health Centre, 20 suspected cases were attended to in the last month.

Most of the cases were from children between the ages of 5 to 16.