YAWS ERADICATION

Change Starts Here. £2 is all it costs to treat a child that has this disease.

What is Yaws?

Yaws is caused by a germ. The disease is spread from person to person especially among children who play together. If left untreated, Yaws causes horrific facial disfiguration later in life.

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What is the treatment for Yaws?

In 2012, The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended the use of oral azithromycin, an antibiotic, in the treatment of yaws.

What is Eradication?

Eradication is the reduction of an infectious disease's prevalence, for example, Polio and Smallpox in the global host population, which is humans, to zero.

Selection of infectious diseases for eradication is based on rigorous criteria. Both biological and technical features determine whether an infectious disease is (at least potentially) eradicable.

• The targeted disease must not have a non-human host and/or amplify in the environment. An example of amplification in the environment is as follows. Studies have shown that the flu spreads better when the air is dry. This means that the flu might survive better when moisture in the air is low. Moisture in the air is generally lowest during wintertime when the air is very cold and dry. Seasonal changes in moisture in the air could explain why more people get sick from the flu during winter.

• Sufficient information on the life cycle and how a disease is spread needs to be available at the time an eradication initiative is created.

• An efficient and practical intervention such as a vaccine or antibiotic must be available to interrupt the spread of the infectious disease. 

• The disease to be eradicated should be clearly identifiable, and an accurate diagnostic tool should exist.

• Economic considerations, as well as societal and political support and commitment, are other crucial factors that determine eradication feasibility.

Two infectious diseases have successfully been eradicated: smallpox and rinderpest. There are also three ongoing programs, targeting:
•    Polio
•    Yaws
•    Guinea Worm. 

Five more infectious diseases have been identified as of April 2008 as potentially eradicable: 
•    Measles
•    Mumps
•    Rubella
•    Lymphatic Filariasis
•    Cysticercosis
 

What does Endemic mean?

Endemic means it is regularly found and very common among a particular group or in a particular area. So, when a disease is said to be endemic, it is very common to a group of people or geographical area.

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Why would I want to support eradicating Yaws? 

Eradicating an infectious disease is a permanent solution. Once it is eradicated it can’t come back. Disease control, elimination, and eradication should go hand in hand with socio-economic development such as building schools and hospitals, providing access to potable drinking water and improving sanitation.

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The world saw the eradication of Smallpox in the 1980s. We will soon see the eradication of poliomyelitis and dracunculiasis (Guinea worm). Yaws is targeted for eradication by WHO NTD (neglected tropical diseases) roadmap. The decision was encouraged by the findings that a single dose of oral azithromycin was curative. We have the potential to eradicate yaws with very little money. Why should poor children continue to suffer from this disease?

There are many benefits of disease eradication that go beyond preventing illness and death:

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• Children don’t miss school due to illness and get a better education and thus better jobs, benefiting the economy and increasing government revenues which go back into education and healthcare. 

• Parents don’t have to take time off work to look after sick children and can provide more money for their families to buy food and other life essentials. 

• Government resources are not spent on treating those who have the disease or vaccinating against a disease that no longer exists. (Due to smallpox being eradicated we no longer need to vaccinate against it).

• Eradicating diseases brings economic benefits, for example, the $9 billion spent on Polio eradication since the 1980s has already returned almost $30 billion to the economy. Yaws eradication is a lot easier and cheaper to eradicate with the WHO estimating it to cost $400 million. 

• Money and resources can be relocated to the eradication and prevention of other diseases. 

• By eradicating Yaws, it will free millions of dollars each year to be allocated to new charitable causes.

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Where is Yaws located? 

There is a map of where Yaws is located below. Perhaps you can see if your country is currently endemic, previously endemic, or free of Yaws. Currently, the following countries have confirmed cases of Yaws:
Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Island, Timor-Leste, Togo, and Vanuatu.

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Who is affected by Yaws? Who benefits from eradication?

Children below the age of 15 are usually affected, and we all benefit from eradication because of the huge benefits it provides society as mentioned above.

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When do you expect Yaws to be eradicated?

The deadline for achieving global eradication is 2030. However, based on previous disease eradication programs this deadline may be extended due to unforeseen problems that we are currently not aware of.

How do I support Yaws Eradication?

You can support Yaws eradication in multiple ways: 
•    You can share this web page on your social media.
•    You can donate towards our goal of buying the rights to a documentary that has been produced on Yaws eradication which we wish to make freely available to everyone and upload it to YouTube. Documentary
•    You can donate to our charity via PayPal below.
•    If are unable to help by donating money, you can always contribute in other areas of disease research and finding cures, by joining BOINC here: www.spaceshipearth.org.uk/boinc
•    You can write to your political representative and ask them what they are doing to help support Yaws Eradication. You can download an A4 poster to send them here: Yaws Poster
•    You can talk about our charity and work with Yaws on the radio, a podcast, YouTube channel, and please send us your video/podcast/radio chat as we love hearing from people talking about Yaws.

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Our Objective

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Raise awareness about Yaws as an infectious disease and how working together we can eradicate it like smallpox

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Our Goal

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Build an international coalition or organisations and governments to eradicate Yaws.

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Bonus Objective

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To explore using the campaign for eradicating Yaws to also reduce syphilis infectious as both diseases use the same antibiotic. Money donated can be granted to Dr Oriol Mitja to carry out this work.