Hereditary Yaws

Abstract

In speaking today on the subject of congenital yaws I am aware of the rashness of discussing a condition which is said not to exist both by the older classical medical texts and by more recent medical literature.Stitt (1) states “It is quite obvious that there does not exist a congenital form of Yaws.” We read in Botreau Roussel (2) “Yaws is neither hereditary nor congenital.” In Osler's Modern Medicine (3) we find the same assertion with the same terms. Patrick Manson (4) writes: “Yaws is neither hereditary nor congenital. A woman suffering with yaws during her pregnancy does not give birth to a child having this affection, nor will the child develop the disease later on, unless it is infected after birth through a skin lesion.”Bertin (5), a physician of the French colony of Santo Domingo in a study on yaws in 1786 writes: “Yaws, as the venereal diseases and others, is transmitted through heredity.