The World Health Organization said it will restart the campaign to rid the globe of the skin and bone wasting disease yaws. The disease affects over 500,000 people globally.

It was previously thought that the disease had been wiped out in the 1950s but it is now slowly returning in Africa's poorest areas in addition to Asia and South America.

Its victims are mostly children in rural and marginalized communities, the WHO said.

Yaws is a spiral bacteria that consumes the skin, cartilage and bones. Victims are often left with holes instead where their lips or noses should be.