Recall of symptoms and treatment of syphilis and yaws by healthy blood donors screening positive for syphilis in Kumasi, Ghana

• Published in: International journal of infectious diseases Vol. 50; no. C; pp. 72 - 74
• Main Authors: Sarkodie, Francis, Owusu-Dabo, Ellis, Hassall, Oliver, Bates, Imelda, Bygbjerg, Ib C., Ullum, Henrik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2016; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Antibodies, Bacterial - blood; Blood donors; Blood Donors - statistics & numerical data; Epidemiological characteristics; Female; Ghana - epidemiology; Hospitals, Teaching; Humans; Infectious Disease; Male; Middle Aged; Pulmonary/Respiratory; Recall of symptoms; Sero-reactive; Syphilis; Syphilis - blood; Syphilis - diagnosis; Syphilis - epidemiology; Syphilis - microbiology; Treponema pallidum - genetics; Treponema pallidum - immunology; Treponema pallidum - isolation & purification; Yaws; Yaws - blood; Yaws - diagnosis; Yaws - epidemiology; Yaws - microbiology; Young Adult; Recall of symptoms; Epidemiological characteristics; Sero-reactive; Yaws; Syphilis; Blood donors
• ISSN: 1201-9712; 1878-3511
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2016.08.006

•A total of 478 syphilis seroreactive blood donors from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana were confirmed with the Ortho-Vitros Syphilis TP test as the gold standard.•Of these, 471 consented syphilis seroreactive blood donors were interviewed to determine past or present clinical manifestations of yaws and syphilis (a response rate of 98.3%).•A total of 28 (5.9%) donors gave a history of skin lesions and sores.•Four of the 28 donors (14.3%), who were all male and RPR-positive, recalled a diagnosis of syphilis with reported lesions/bumps on the skin and slow-healing sores, but only one of them had had these symptoms before the age of 15 years.•These data suggest that a clinical history of yaws is not frequent among syphilis-positive blood donors. However, syphilis symptoms were also not reported frequently. To describe the recalled medical history, clinical manifestations, and treatment of yaws and syphilis by syphilis seroreactive blood donors in Kumasi, Ghana. Of the blood donors at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana tested with the syphilis rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and later by rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test, 526 were seroreactive. Four hundred and seventy-one (89.5%) of these subjects were confirmed with the Ortho-Vitros Syphilis TP test as the gold standard and were interviewed to determine past or present clinical manifestations of yaws and syphilis. Of the 471 respondent donors, 28 (5.9%) gave a history of skin lesions and sores; four (14.3%) of these subjects, who were all male and RPR-positive, recalled a diagnosis of syphilis. All four reported having had skin lesions/bumps with slow-healing sores, but only one of them had had these symptoms before the age of 15 years. A small proportion of confirmed seroreactive donors in this sample had any recall of symptoms or treatment for yaws or syphilis. These data suggest that clinical questioning adds little further information to the current screening algorithm. The relative contribution of yaws and syphilis to frequent positive tests in endemic areas remains speculative.