Bejel has many other names depending on the locality, including siti (Gambia), njovera (southern Rhodesia), therlijevo (Croatia), and frenjak (Balkans).
Bejel is only rarely reported in the United States and then usually among immigrants and people arriving from areas where the disease is common.
Bejel is related to yaws and pinta, and together the three diseases are referred to as treponematoses.
Bejel is usually completely curable with antibiotic treatment.
Bejel occurs predominately in children aged two to 15 years.
Both sexes are equally susceptible to bejel.
In bejel, transmission is by direct contact, with broken skin or contaminated hands, or indirectly by sharing drinking vessels and eating utensils.
The doctor should be called if symptoms of bejel develop in a child.
The lesions associated with bejel are destructive and may leave disfiguring scars.
The skin, bones, and mucous membranes are all affected by bejel.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has worked with many countries to prevent this and other diseases, and the number of cases of bejel has been reduced somewhat.
Treponema pallidum subspecies endemicum, the bacteria that causes bejel, is very closely related to the one that causes the sexually transmitted form of syphilis, but the method of transmission is different.
When traveling in areas where bejel is endemic, parents should ensure that their children avoid contact with children with lesions and avoid shared drinking and eating utensils.
Widespread use of penicillin has been responsible for reducing the number of existing cases, but the only way to eliminate bejel is by improving living and sanitation conditions and through continuing health education.