yaws

American  

[yawz] / yɔz /

noun

(used with a singular verb)

1. an infectious, nonvenereal tropical disease, primarily of children, characterized by raspberrylike eruptions of the skin and caused by a spirochete, Treponema pertenue, that is closely related to the agent of syphilis.

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yaws British  

/ jɔːz /

noun

1. Also called: framboesia.  (usually functioning as singular) an infectious nonvenereal disease of tropical climates with early symptoms resembling syphilis, characterized by red skin eruptions and, later, pain in the joints: it is caused by the spiral bacterium Treponema pertenue

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yaws Scientific  

/ yôz /

1. A highly contagious tropical disease that chiefly affects children, caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue and characterized by raspberrylike sores, especially on the hands, feet, and face.

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Etymology

Origin of yaws

From Carib, dating back to 1670–80; see origin at -s ³

Example Sentences

"Yaws is an important public health problem, and he made it a priority," she says.

From Science Magazine • Jul. 19, 2018

Yaws would also be the first bacterial disease to be wiped out.

From Science Magazine • Jul. 19, 2018

Yaws is a disfiguring skin disease that affects more than 1 million people in 14 African and East Asian countries.Credit:

From Nature • Feb. 7, 2018

Yaws is known to be prevalent in 12 countries in areas where people have little access to healthcare, mainly in West and Central Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands.

From Reuters • Feb. 19, 2015

Yaws became serious, but that was a trifle as compared with dysentery; and pleurisy, pneumonia, fever and dropsy had also to be reckoned with.

From American Negro Slavery A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime by Phillips, Ulrich Bonnell