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

Objective

To describe the recalled medical history, clinical manifestations and treatment of yaws and syphilis by syphilis sero-reactive blood donors in Kumasi, Ghana

Methods

Of the 526 sero-reactive blood donors tested with syphilis rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and later with rapid plasma reagin (RPR) from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana, 471(89.5%) of them who were confirmed with Ortho-Vitros® Syphilis TP test as the gold standard were interviewed to determine past or present clinical manifestations of yaws and syphilis.

Results

Of the 471 respondents, 28 (5.9%) donors gave a history of skin lesions and sores and of these, four (14.3%) who were all males 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 these symptoms before the age of 15.

Conclusions

A small proportion of confirmed sero-reactive donors in our sample had any recall of symptoms or treatment for yaws or syphilis. Our 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.