Clinical evaluation of a loop-mediated isothermal amplification test for Treponema pallidum pertenue: a diagnostic tool to support yaws eradication

This is a European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) funded project running between 2020-2022 to evaluate the potential of a new diagnostic test for yaws. The project brings together the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK), the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (Ghana), the Institut Pasteur (Côte d’Ivoire), the Centre Pasteur (Cameroon), Fundació Lluita contra la Sida i les Malaties Infeccioses (Spain), University of Göttingen, University of Freiburg and Mast Diagnostica (Germany). The fieldwork for the study will be conducted in sites across West and Central Africa. Patients suspected to have yaws will be enrolled into the study and we will compare the performance of standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays performed at national reference laboratories with a novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the diagnosis of yaws. We will also work to develop a LAMP assay which can detect the presence of azithromycin resistance in yaws.