Rediscovery_and_Genomic_Epidemiology_of_Yaws_in_Liberia

Yaws, caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue (TPE), is the target of a current WHO eradication campaign, but the global prevalence is poorly understood. In a recent study of skin disease conducted through intense surveillance and clinical monitoring in Liberia, a small number of yaws infections were detected, exhibiting focal epidemiology. In this study, we use whole genome sequencing performed directly on DNA extracted from patient swabs to enable genomic and phylogenomic characterisation of the bacterial DNA from these cases.