The study was undertaken by Dr Kingsley  Bampoe Asiedu, a researcher at the World Health Organisation (WHO) and colleagues and published in the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, which is available to the Ghana News Agency.

Yaws is a disease which affects mainly children and is diagnosed by the presence of skin ulcers and a reactive syphilis serology, but this can be confused clinically with ulcers caused by other infections, such as a Haemophilus ducreyi infection.

In 2012, the WHO devised a new yaws eradication strategy, also known as the Morges Strategy, which recommended the TCT of yaws-affected communities using single doses of oral azithromycin followed by ongoing active surveillance and total targeted treatment of cases and contacts.

Dr Asiedu, lead investigator and colleagues conducted a survey of 2,909 schoolchildren before and one year after the TCT intervention in Ghana in order to assess the impact of the mass treatment.

The researchers found that the provision of mass azithromycin administration given as a single oral dose of 30 mg/kg and up to a maximum dose of 2 g was effective in reducing both the rates of seropositivity and the presence of serologically (blood serum fluid) positive skin lesions consistent with yaws one year after administration.

Azithromycin is also effective against H. ducreyi.

It said while the sample population of schoolchildren did not include the poorest children who may not attend school, the routine surveillance data from the District Health Information Management System confirmed the overall decrease of yaws-like cases seen in the Ghanaian sub-district one year after the TCT.

The authors note that yaws-like lesions caused by H. ducreyi or other unknown pathogens may continue to persist after a single-round of mass treatment, and therefore they suggest that it may be necessary to devise new management protocols for non-yaws / non-H. ducreyi lesions following the successful elimination of yaws through TCT.

Dr Cynthia Keakye-Maclean, Programme Manager of the Ghana Yaws Eradication Programme, noted "Although one round of TCT was unable to stop transmission, we achieved a significant reduction in the disease. With little effort through total targeted treatment, or perhaps another round of TCT, we could possibly end the disease".