Treponemal serological tests in Jamaican school children, 1976

ABSTRACT

Sera from 899 children aged 6-14 years attending schools in rural St. Andrew and St. Mary in Jamaica were examined by the VDRL test and, if reactive or weakly reactive, by the FTA-ABS test. Fourteen sera were weakly reactive and, of these, 5 were positive in the FTA-ABS test. The cause of these reactive tests was not determined. The proportion of children in St. Mary who were weakly reactive in the VDRL test was 0.1 percent compared to 27.6 percent weakly reactive and reactive children in 1963, 13 years earlier, which suggests that yaws transmission has become rare in St. Mary and, by inference, probably elsewhere in Jamaica. The mistaken diagnosis of syphilis by sero-reactivity which was, in fact, due to yaws contracted in childhood used to be a major problem. With the disappearance of childhood yaws, the value of reactive treponemal tests as evidence of syphilitic infection should be of increasing significance (AU)