THE HISTOLOGY OF HEALING YAWS 



Of the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology, College of Medicine and 

 Surgery, University of the Philippines 



The rapid curative effect of neosalvarsan upon the cutaneous 

 lesions of yaws is probably the most spectacular achievement of 

 modern chemotherapy. Disfiguring: and loathsome sores, oozing 

 pus and blood for months, will begin to dry and encrust a day 

 or two after an intravenous injection of this drug, and in an 

 incredibly short time will fade away almost magically. Since 

 Strong, (12) in 1910, first demonstrated his successful results in 

 the treatment of yaws with salvarsan, many observers have 

 commented upon the immediate improvement in gross ap- 

 pearance of lesions following this treatment, but it has been 

 impossible to find any description of the more minute changes 

 that take place in the tissues of the nodules. The rapid en- 

 crustation and dropping off, so to speak, of a lesion which is 

 known to be largely an epithelial hyperplasia, is difficult to 

 explain from gross appearances alone. It was consequently of 

 interest to determine what happens to the causative organisms, 

 and how such a sudden subsidence of the inflammatory process is 

 brought about. 



Through cooperation with the Philippine Health Service at 

 Paranaque and the Philippine General Hospital it was possible 

 to excise suitable lesions before and at varying lengths of time 

 after treatment, and a description of the histopathology of these 

 specimens is the basis of the present paper. 



There are several excellent descriptions of the typical cuta- 

 neous lesion of yaws. Many of them, and some the best, were 

 made before Treponema pertenue had been demonstrated by 

 Castellani(i) to be the etiological agent, and they are therefore 

 incomplete. Others were based upon study of a single example, 

 consequently presenting only one stage; but, taken altogether, 

 this phase of the pathology of the yaw has been carefully studied 

 and our understanding of the inflammatory process is fairly 



