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"Yaws adds to plight of Congo's forest dwellers

A FLESH-EATING disease that could be prevented by washing with soap is having a devastating effect on the "forgotten" pygmies of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), aid workers are warning. The Pygmies are already in a dire plight because of war, deforestation and slavery.

"The situation is very, very serious," says Liliane Tumba of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), who led a preliminary mission to the remote Likouala region in March to treat Pygmies with the disease, called bush yaws or pian. As many as half of the 6000 Pygmies there, known as the Babenga, are thought to be affected by the disease. A single shot of penicillin is all it takes to cure it, but Tumba's team has been able to treat only 135 people so far because of difficulties reaching the region and a lack of funding. Her team, based in the capital, Brazzaville, plans to return to the forests in June.

The situation elsewhere is unclear, but the UNICEF representative for the country, Raymond Janssens, believes many of the other Pygmy populations in Africa are in a similar plight. It is thought that several hundred thousand Pygmies remain in western and central Africa, but there are no reliable population figures.

Yaws develops when a highly contagious bacterium, Treponema pertenue, gets into cuts and grazes, causing lesions that can destroy skin and bone, leaving people disfigured and disabled. It seldom kills directly, but victims are vulnerable to other infections. The disease has been largely eliminated in most tropical countries, but remains common in the poorest areas where there is no clean water and people cannot afford simple hygiene measures such as washing with soap.

"It's a disease which is not only horrible, it is also a question of a disease of disgrace because it eats away your flesh on your limbs and face," says Janssens. Victims usually hide themselves away.

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Yaws is just one of several threats to the survival of Pygmy groups. Civil wars, unrest and logging have driven many from their traditional homes in the forest. Many now live on the outskirts of non-Pygmy villages, often in conditions of slavery. "It's a really dreadful situation, which the Congolese themselves have to address," says Janssens.

In the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, there have even been cases of Pygmies being murdered and eaten. Last year Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of the Mbuti Pygmies, appealed to the UN to set up a court to try those responsible.

Shaoni Bhattacharya