title: Recall of symptoms and treatment of syphilis and yaws by healthy blood donors screening positive for syphilis in Kumasi, Ghana.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the recalled medical history, clinical manifestations, and treatment of yaws and syphilis by syphilis seroreactive blood donors in Kumasi, Ghana.
  
  
  METHODS
  Of the blood donors at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana tested with the syphilis rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and later by rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test, 526 were seroreactive. Four hundred and seventy-one (89.5%) of these subjects were confirmed with the Ortho-Vitros Syphilis TP test as the gold standard and were interviewed to determine past or present clinical manifestations of yaws and syphilis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 471 respondent donors, 28 (5.9%) gave a history of skin lesions and sores; four (14.3%) of these subjects, who were all male 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 had these symptoms before the age of 15 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A small proportion of confirmed seroreactive donors in this sample had any recall of symptoms or treatment for yaws or syphilis. These 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.
authors.affiliation: Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana; Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK. Electronic address: fsarkodie29@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sarkodie
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Ellis
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Owusu-Dabo
authors.affiliation: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hassall
authors.affiliation: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Imelda
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ib C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Bygbjerg
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Immunology, Copenhagen, University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ullum
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana / Q000453:epidemiology; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013587:Syphilis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D014210:Treponema pallidum / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015001:Yaws / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial
keywords: Blood donors; Epidemiological characteristics; Recall of symptoms; Sero-reactive; Syphilis; Yaws