[The differential diagnosis of indolent ulcers upon return from the Tropics: frambesia]

A 26-year-old patient was referred for investigation of chronic skin ulcerations which had appeared 2 months after a one-week stay in the Ivory Coast. The diagnosis was established clinically and serologically and the patient was successfully treated with penicillin. Even if yaws is a rare imported disease in Switzerland, it should always be considered in differential diagnosis of painless skin ulcerations in travellers returning from tropical countries, bearing in mind that the number of cases of yaws has increased in several tropical countries.