Bacterial, Mycobacterial, and Spirochetal (Nonvenereal) Infections
Ayşe Serap Karadağ, Lawrence Charles Parish, Jordan V. Wang in Roxburgh's Common Skin Diseases, 2022
Overview: Nonvenereal syphilis (bejel- T. pallidum endemicum) was first reported by Ellis H. Hudson (1890–1992) in 1928 in Deir az Zawr, Syria, when he found that syphilis was rampant among the poorest groups, especially nomads, while uncommon among townspeople. A nonspecific flocculation test for syphilis was widely positive, but the Bedouins, with their strict code of life, refuted the possibility of a venereal disease, instead calling it bejel and not the French disease (marad fransi). Nonvenereal syphilis (bejel) historically antedated the emergence of sexually transmitted syphilis and is also caused by Treponema pallidum subsp. endemicum. It is associated with poor living conditions and consequently was expected to gradually disappear with the change from nomadic to a settled lifestyle with better basic services, including water supply, drainage, and health, leaving sexual transmission as the remaining important mode of transmission.
The Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution
Lois N. Magner, Oliver J. Kim in A History of Medicine, 2017
If diseases were catalogued in terms of etiological agents instead of means of transmission, syphilis would be described as a member of the treponematosis family, that is, diseases caused by members of the Treponema group of spirochetes (corkscrew-shaped bacteria). Although these microbes grow slowly, once established in a suitable host they multiply with inexorable patience and persistence. Syphilis is one of four clinically distinct human treponematoses; the others are known as pinta, yaws, and bejel. Some bacteriologists believe that pinta, yaws, bejel, and syphilis are caused by variants of an ancestral spirochete that adapted to different patterns of climate and human behavior. The nonvenereal treponematoses are probably descendants of ancient childhood diseases. As people migrated to cooler areas and wore more clothing, nonvenereal transmission was inhibited. Pinta, a disease endemic in Mexico and Central America, is characterized by skin eruptions of varying severity. Until Treponema carateum was discovered, pinta was classified among the fungal skin diseases. Yaws, a disease caused by Treponema pertenue, flourishes in hot, moist climates. Like syphilis, yaws leads to destruction of tissue, joints, and bone. Bejel (nonvenereal endemic syphilis) is generally acquired in childhood among rural populations living in warm, arid regions. Like syphilis, bejel has a latent phase, and afflicted individuals may be infectious for many years.
Bacteria
Loretta A. Cormier, Pauline E. Jolly in The Primate Zoonoses, 2017
Treponema pallidum consists of three subspecies that are serologically indistinguishable, but historically have been differentiated by symptoms and the geographic area in which they occur; only very recently have genetic tests become available to distinguish the three (Knauf et al. 2013). T. p. pallidum has a worldwide distribution and is the agent of the venereal disease syphilis. T. p. endemicum, also known as Bejel, is the agent of endemic syphilis and occurs in arid regions. T. p. pertenue is the agent of the ulcerative skin disease yaws and primarily affects children in hot and humid areas of Africa and Asia and is the form that has zoonotic potential from nonhuman primates.
Serologic false-positive reactions for syphilis in children of adenoidal hypertrophy:2 case reports and review of the literature
Published in Acta Clinica Belgica, 2021
Wei Wang, Xuzhou Fan, Xuelian Huang, Jingmei Yan, Jianfeng Luan
Treponematoses are infections caused by the spirochetal organisms of the Treponema species. These causes mainly include syphilis and nonvenereal or endemic treponematoses (ETs) consisting of yaws, bejel and pinta [14]. Unlike syphilis, the nonvenereal treponematoses are mainly transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, and children under 15 years of age are more susceptible to these diseases in tropical and subtropical areas. It is almost impossible to distinguish these diseases from each other by morphology or by serological tests [15]. The patient’s disease state may also lead to false positive reactions in serological tests of ETs. So the establishment of the diagnosis of ETs can be even more difficult in countries with poor laboratory diagnostics but high rates of syphilis.