CURRENT UPDATE: INDIA FIRST COUNTRY TO BECOME YAWS-FREE

India achieves yet another public health milestone; becomes first country to be declared free of Yaws, an infection of the skin and bones, much ahead of WHO global target year of 2020.

India has acknowledged as the first country in the world to become YAWS-free.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda received an official citation from the World Health Organisation and the UNICEF for Elimination of Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus and for being YAWS-free on 14-07-2016.

 YAWS is a kind of bacterial infection that affects skin, bones and joints, while tetanus, another bacterial infection, leads to muscle spasms that can be fatal.

An official statement said, "India was validated for MNTE in April 2015, much ahead of the global target date of December 2015." According to the WHO, 19 countries have still not reached the MNTE status.

The Union Health minister said that following the success of polio eradication programme, these achievements reflect the dedication of the country towards achievement of health equity and universal health coverage.

He added that this accomplishment is significant as India has achieved the milestone of being YAWS-free much before the WHO global target year of 2020.

Transmitted by skin contact, the disease affects mostly children between the ages of five and 15, and appears as multiple lesions which eat away at faces, arms and hands, and deepen to the bones, disfiguring the child. Yaws is closely linked to poverty and is part of a family of disabling disease that affect the skin – along with leprosy – preventing children from attending school and placing an undue economic burden on local communities.

In May, WHO certified India yaws-free after a team of experts verified interruption of disease transmission in the country. It is the first country under the 2012 WHO neglected tropical diseases roadmap to eliminate yaws, a disabling bacterial disease that results in severe disfigurement.

The agency described maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination (MNTE) as a “momentous public health feat,” as until a few decades ago the country reported 150,000 to 200,000 neonatal tetanus cases annually. Such tetanus cases are reduced to less than one case per 1,000 live births in all its 675 districts.

According to WHO, both yaws and maternal and neonatal tetanus eliminations were achieved using the existing health system and health workforce. It noted sustained political commitment and clear policies, unified strategies, close supervision and monitoring, efforts of the frontline workers, and invaluable support of partners, particularly for MNTE, as key factors for the achievement.

WHO further noted that Indonesia was also validated for the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus in May this year. With this, the agency said, the entire South-East Asia Region has achieved elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus, becoming the second region, after European Region, to achieve the feat.

Indonesia and Timor-Leste are now the only remaining countries with yaws transmission in the South-East Asia Region