CSU 29/2008: AFRICAN SLEEPING SICKNESS

Friday, 4th of July 2008

CSU 29/2008: AFRICAN SLEEPING SICKNESS

Recent years have seen a decline in recorded cases of African
trypanosomiasis, reversing an upward trend in incidence which started in
the 1960s. Only three African countries (Sudan, DRC and Angola) now report
more than 1000 cases per year.

In this article from PLOS Medicine, Simarro and colleagues consider the way
forward for control and elimination of sleeping sickness. Among their
conclusions:

"While the number of new detected cases is falling, sleeping sickness could
suffer the “punishment of success,” receiving lower priority by public and
private health institutions with the consequent risk of losing the capacity
to maintain disease control. While waiting for new tools for sleeping
sickness control, the greatest challenge for the coming years will be to
increase and sustain the current control efforts using existing tools.
Effective surveillance
and control followed by good reporting will be crucial. Furthermore,
advocacy in endemic countries should continue to be maintained in the face
of decreasing cases reported; sleeping sickness should retain its high
priority with health policy makers and planners."

Full text, with figures, is at http://www.plosmedicine.org/search/simpleSearch.action?from=globalSimpleSearch&filterJournals=PLoSMedicine&query=simarro

Good reading.

BD