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Public Health Program

Yaws Eradication Programme

Eradication and Elimination Program

A World Health Organization and UNICEF campaign, known as the Global Yaws Control Programme, that ran from 1952 to 1964, treated an estimated 300 million people across 46 countries and reduced global yaws prevalence by around 95 percent using mass penicillin treatment. Despite this early success the disease was never fully eliminated, in part because asymptomatic carriers were missed and surveillance lapsed once the mass campaigns ended, allowing the disease to resurge in several countries. A renewed World Health Organization eradication effort, using single dose oral azithromycin instead of injected penicillin, was set in motion by World Health Assembly resolution WHA66.12 in 2013 with an original target date of 2020, and yaws remains one of the neglected tropical diseases still targeted for eradication.

Facts
Program Status
Ongoing (WHO renewed elimination effort targeting 2020) 1
Sponsoring Body
World Health Organization 1
Target Population
Children, especially those aged six to ten, in poor rural tropical communities 1
Health Goal
Globally eradicate yaws 1
Geographic Scope
Tropical regions of South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, concentrated in Ghana, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands 1
Program status (class)
Ongoing 1
Classification
Program Kind
Disease Surveillance Program 1
Connections

Associated With

Global Health, Branches
World Health Organization, Institutions

WHO-led yaws eradication programme

Delivers Practice

Disease Surveillance, Practices

Entity-backed identity for the program-kind enum value this public health program already carries, resolved to a health practice by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The program-kind fact itself stays on the program unchanged.

In the Other Atlases
  • Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, found in there.
  • Also in Geography Atlas: Asia, found in there.
  • Also in Geography Atlas: Australia, found in there.
  • Also in Geography Atlas: Oceania, found in there.
  • Also in Geography Atlas: South America, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Yaws
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
  • Wikipedia "Yaws" article, history subsection, 1950s-60s WHO campaign sentence
    Efforts in the 1950s and 1960s by the World Health Organization decreased the number of cases by 95%.
  • Wikipedia "Yaws" article, history subsection, renewed-eradication-effort sentence
    Since then, cases have increased, but with renewed efforts to globally eradicate the disease by 2020.
  • Wikipedia "Yaws" article, Epidemiology section, country-concentration sentence
    Worldwide, almost 85% of yaws cases are in Ghana, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
  • Wikipedia "Yaws" article, Epidemiology section, age-distribution sentence
    Yaws primarily affects children, with up to 80% of cases in those under 15 years of age, and peak incidence in children aged six to ten.
  • Wikipedia "Yaws" article, history subsection, same renewed-eradication-effort sentence
    Since then, cases have increased, but with renewed efforts to globally eradicate the disease by 2020.
  • Program classification, entity description sentence
    Despite this early success the disease was never fully eliminated, in part because asymptomatic carriers were missed and surveillance lapsed once the mass campaigns ended, allowing the disease to resurge in several countries.
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