Re-emergence of epidemic sleeping sickness in southern Sudan

Management of a sleeping sickness epidemic in Southern Sudan

An epidemic of human African trypanosomiasis, also called sleeping sickness, was identified in Tambura County, Southern Sudan in 1997. Implementation of a sleeping sickness control program by international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Tambura County resulted in a three-fold decrease in the incidence of sleeping sickness between 1997-1999. The sustainability of these interventions onc...

Resurgence of sleeping sickness in Southern Sudan

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), or sleeping sickness, has been a public health problem in Sudan for much of the 20 century. Endemic foci of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense are found in southern Sudan in a belt bordering Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Gambiense sleeping sickness runs a chronic clinical course and is invariably fatal if left untreated. The di...

Reanalyzing the 1900-1920 sleeping sickness epidemic in Uganda.

Sleeping sickness has long been a major public health problem in Uganda. From 1900 to 1920, more than 250,000 people died in an epidemic that affected the southern part of the country, particularly the Busoga region. The epidemic has traditionally been ascribed to Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, a parasite now confined to central and western Africa. The Busoga region still reports sleeping sickne...

Elimination of sleeping sickness in Uganda could be jeopardised by conflict in South Sudan.

Gambiense sleeping sickness: re-emerging and soon untreatable?

Towards the end of the 1950s, sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense was believed to be on the verge of eradication. Today, however, it has returned with a vengeance, mainly because of a deterioration of control activities, severe disruptions of health services, and population movements into high-risk areas. For example, over the last ten years, annual detection rates of the d...